Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
24. O wretched man, &c.] Lit. Miserable man [am] I. The adjective indicates a state of suffering; the pain of the inner conflict as felt by the regenerate “mind [38] .”
[38] In Lord Selborne’s Book of Praise will be found a most remarkable Hymn, (No. ccclxx), beginning “O send me down a draught of love.” The whole Hymn forms a profound and suggestive commentary here.
from the body of this death ] Better, perhaps, out of this body of death. The Gr. admits either translation. The best commentary on this ver. is Rom 8:23, where the saints are said to “groan, waiting for the redemption of their body.” Under different imagery the idea here is the same. The body, as it now is, is the stronghold of sin in various ways, (see on Rom 6:6,) and is that part of the regenerate man which yet has to die. The Apostle longs to be free from it as such as sinful and mortal; in other words, he “groans for its redemption.” Cp. Php 3:21; 2Co 5:4; 2Co 5:8.
Such an explanation is surely preferable to that which makes “body” mean “mass” or “load.” Some commentators, again, trace a metaphorical reference to the cruelty of tyrants, (e.g. Virgil’s Mezentius,) who chained the living and the dead together. But this is quite out of character with the severely simple imagery here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O wretched man that I am! – The feeling implied by this lamentation is the result of this painful conflict; and this frequent subjection to sinful propensities. The effect of this conflict is,
(1) To produce pain and distress. It is often an agonizing struggle between good and evil; a struggle which annoys the peace, and renders life wretched.
(2) It tends to produce humility. It is humbling to man to be thus under the influence of evil passions. It is degrading to his nature; a stain on his glory; and it tends to bring him into the dust, that he is under the control of such propensities, and so often gives indulgence to them. In such circumstances, the mind is overwhelmed with wretchedness, and instinctively sighs for relief. Can the Law aid? Can man aid? Can any native strength of conscience or of reason aid? In vain all these are tried, and the Christian then calmly and thankfully acquiesces in the consolations of the apostle, that aid can be obtained only through Jesus Christ.
Who shall deliver me – Who shall rescue me; the condition of a mind in deep distress, and conscious of its own weakness, and looking for aid.
The body of this death – Margin, This body of death. The word body here is probably used as equivalent to flesh, denoting the corrupt and evil propensities of the soul; Note, Rom 7:18. It is thus used to denote the law of sin in the members, as being that with which the apostle was struggling, and from which he desired to be delivered. The expression body of this death is a Hebraism, denoting a body deadly in its tendency; and the whole expression may mean the corrupt principles of man; the carnal, evil affections that lead to death or to condemnation. The expression is one of vast strength, and strongly characteristic of the apostle Paul. It indicates,
- That it was near him, attending him, and was distressing in its nature.
(2)An earnest wish to be delivered from it.
Some have supposed that he refers to a custom practiced by ancient tyrants, of binding a dead body to a captive as a punishment, and compelling him to drag the cumbersome and offensive burden with him wherever he went. I do not see any evidence that the apostle had this in view. But such a fact may be used as a striking and perhaps not improper illustration of the meaning of the apostle here. No strength of words could express deeper feeling; none more feelingly indicate the necessity of the grace of God to accomplish that to which the unaided human powers are incompetent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 7:24-25
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Soul despotism
I. The souls oppressive despot. The body of this death. What is meant by this? Corrupt animalism. What is elsewhere called the flesh with its corruptions and lusts. The body, intended to be an instrument and servant of the soul, has become its sovereign, and keeps all its power of intellect and conscience in subjection. Corrupt animalism is the moral monarch of the world. It rules in literature, in politics, in science, and even in churches. This despot is death to all true freedom, progress, happiness.
II. The souls struggle to be free. This implies–
1. A quickened consciousness of its condition. O wretched man that I am! The vast majority of souls, alas I are utterly insensible to this; hence they remain passive. What quickens the soul into this consciousness? The law. The light of Gods moral law flashes on the conscience and startles it.
2. An earnest desire for help. It feels its utter inability to haul the despot down; and it cries mightily, Who shall deliver me? Who? Legislatures, moralists, poets, philosophers, priesthoods? No; they have tried for ages, and have failed. Who? There is One and but One, and to Him Paul alludes in the next verse and the following chapter. Thanks be to God, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The cry of the Christian warrior
The cry not of a chained captive to be set free, but of a soldier in conflict who looks round for succour. He is in the fight; he sees the enemy advancing against him, with spear in hand, and chains ready to throw over him; the soldier sees his danger, feels his weakness and helplessness, yet has no thought of yielding; he cries out, Who shall deliver me? But it is not the cry of a vanquished but of a contending soldier of Jesus Christ. (F. Bourdillon.)
Victory in the hidden warfare
To enter into the full meaning of these words, we must understand their place in the argument. The great theme is opened in Rom 1:16. To establish this, Paul begins by proving in the first four chapters that both Jew and Gentile are utterly lost. In the fifth he shows that through Christ peace with God may be brought into the conscience of the sinner. In the sixth he proves that this truth, instead of being any excuse for sin, was the strongest argument against it, for it gave freedom from sin, which the law could never do. And then, in this chapter, he inquires why the law could not bring this gift. Before the law was given, man could not know what sin was, any more than the unevenness of a crooked line can be known until it is placed beside something that is straight. But when the law raised before his eyes a rule of holiness, then, for the first time, his eyes were opened; he saw that he was full of sin; and forthwith there sprang up a fearful struggle. Once he had been alive without the law; he had lived, that is, a life of unconscious, self-contented impurity; but that life was gone from him, he could live it no longer. The law, because it was just and good, wrought death in him; for it was a revelation of death without remedy. The law was spiritual, but he was corrupt, sold under sin. Even when his struggling will did desire in some measure a better course, still he was beaten down again by evil. How to perform that which was good he found not. Yea, when he would do good, evil was present with him. In vain there looked in upon his soul the blessed countenance of an external holiness. Its angel gladness, of which he could in no way be made partaker, did but render darker and more intolerable the loathsome dungeon in which he was perpetually held. It was the fierce struggle of an enduring death; and in its crushing agony, he cried aloud against the nature, which, in its inmost currents, sin had turned into corruption and a curse. O wretched man that I am! etc. And then forthwith upon this stream of misery there comes forth a gleam of light from the heavenly presence; I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is deliverance for me; I am a redeemed man; holiness may be mine, and, with it, peace and joy. Here is the full meaning of these glorious words.
I. They lie at the root of such exertions as we make for those whom sin has brought down very low.
1. They contain the principle which should lead us most truly to sympathise with them. This great truth of the redemption Of our nature in Christ Jesus is the only link of brotherhood between man and man. To deny our brotherhood with any of the most miserable of those whom Christ has redeemed, is to deny our own capacity for perfect holiness, and so our true redemption through Christ.
2. Here, too, is the only warrant for any reasonable efforts for their restoration. Without this, every man, who knows anything of the depth of evil with which he has to deal, would give up the attempt in despair. Every reasonable effort to restore any sinner, is a declaration that we believe that we are in a kingdom of grace, of redeemed humanity. Unbelieving men cannot receive the truth that a soul can be thus restored. They believe that you may make a man respectable; but not that you can heal the inner currents of his spiritual life, and so they cannot labour in prayers and ministrations with the spiritual leper, until his flesh, of Gods grace, comes again as the flesh of a little child. To endure this labour, we must believe that in Christ, the true Man, and through the gift of His Spirit, there is deliverance from the body of this death.
II. It is at the root also of all real efforts for ourselves.
1. Every earnest man must, if he sets himself to resist the evil which is in himself, know something of the struggle which the apostle here describes; and if he would endure the extremity of that conflict, he must have a firm belief that there is a deliverance for him. Without this, the knowledge of Gods holiness is nothing else than the burning fire of despair. And so many do despair. They think they have made their choice, and that they must abide by it; and so they shut their eyes to their sins, they excuse them, they try to forget them, they do everything but overcome them, until they see that in Christ Jesus there is for them, if they will claim it, a sure power over these sins. And, therefore, as the first consequence, let us ever hold it fast, even as our life.
2. Nor is it needful to lower the tone of promise in order to prevent its being turned into an excuse for sin. Here, as elsewhere, the simple words of God contain their own best safeguard against being abused; for what can be so loud a witness against allowed sin in any Christian man as this truth is? If there be in the true Christian life in union with Christ for every one of us this power against sin, sin cannot reign in any who are living in Him. To be in Christ is to be made to conquer in the struggle. So that this is the most quickening and sanctifying truth. It tears up by the roots a multitude of secret excuses. It tells us that if we are alive in Christ Jesus, we must be new creatures. And herein it destroys the commonest form of self-deception–the allowing some sin in ourselves, because in other things we deny ourselves, because we pray, because we give alms, etc. And this self-deception is put down only by bringing out this truth, that in Christ Jesus there is for us, in our struggle with the body of this death, an entire conquest, if we will but honestly and earnestly claim it for ourselves; so that if we do not conquer sin, it must be because we are not believing.
3. This will make us diligent in all parts of the Christian life, because all will become a reality. Prayer, the reading of Gods Word, etc., will be precious after a new sort, because through them is kept alive our union with Christ, in whom alone is for us a conquest over the evil which is in us. So that, to sum up all in one blessed declaration, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make us free from the law of sin and death. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
The body of death
I. What is meant by the body of death of which the believer complains.
1. Indwelling sin is called the body of this death, as it is the effect and remains of that spiritual death to which all men are subject in unregeneracy.
2. The remains of sin in the believer is called the body of this death, on account of the deadness and dulness of spirit in the service of God, which it so often produces.
3. Remaining depravity is called the body of death, because it tends to death.
(1) It tends to the death of the body. As it was sin that brought us under the influence of the sentence of dissolution; as it is sin that has introduced into the material frame of man those principles of decay which will bring it to the grave; as it is sin which is the parent of those evil passions which, as natural causes, war against the health and life of the body, so it is the inbred sins of the believer that require his flesh to see the dust.
(2) But this is not all. Remaining depravity tends to spiritual and eternal death, and on this account, also, is justly called the body of this death.
II. The grief and pain which remaining depravity occasions to the believer.
1. Remaining depravity is thus painful and grievous to the Christian, from his acquaintance with its evil and malignant nature.
2. Remaining sin is thus painful to the Christian, from the constant struggle which it maintains with grace within the heart. Even in eminent saints the contest is often singularly obstinate and painful; for where there is strong grace there are also, sometimes, strong corruptions. Besides, where there is eminent spirituality of mind, there is an aspiration after a freedom from imperfections which scarcely belongs to the present state.
III. The earnest longings and confident and joyful assurance of deliverance from indwelling sin which the Christian entertains.
1. Mark his earnest longings–Who shall deliver me? The language implies how well the Christian knows he cannot deliver himself from the body of sin. This is the habitual desire of his soul–the habitual object of his pursuit. For this end he prays, he praises, he reads, he hears, he communicates. So earnest, in short, is his desire of deliverance, that he welcomes with this view two things most unwelcome to the feelings of nature affliction and death.
2. Mark his confident and joyful assurance of deliverance. Weak in himself, the Christian is yet strong in the Lord. All the victories he has hitherto achieved have been through the faith and by the might of the Redeemer. All the victories he shall yet acquire shall be obtained in the same way.
3. Mark the gratitude of the Christian for this anticipated and glorious deliverance. Sin is the cause of all the other evils in which he has been involved, and when sin is destroyed within and put forever away, nothing can be wanting to perfect his blessedness. Well then does it become him to cherish the feeling and utter the language of thankfulness. (James Kirkwood.)
The spectre of the old nature
1. Some years ago a number of peculiar photographs were circulated by spiritualists. Two portraits appeared on the same card, one clear and the other obscure. The fully developed portrait was the obvious likeness of the living person; and the indistinct portrait was supposed to be the likeness of some dead friend, produced by supernatural agency. The mystery, however, was found to admit of an easy scientific explanation. It not unfrequently happens that the portrait of a person is so deeply impressed on the glass of the negative, that although the plate is thoroughly cleansed with strong acid, the picture cannot be removed, although it is made invisible. When such a plate is used over again, the original image faintly reappears along with the new portrait. So is it in the experience of the Christian. He has been washed in the blood of Christ; and beholding the glory of Christ as in a glass, he is changed into the same image. And yet the ghost of his former sinfulness persists in reappearing with the image of the new man. So deeply are the traces of the former godless life impressed upon the soul, that even the sanctification of the Spirit, carried on through discipline, burning as corrosive acid, cannot altogether remove them.
2. The photographer also has a process by which the obliterated picture may at any time be revived. And so it was with the apostle. The sin that so easily beset him returned with fresh power in circumstances favourable to it.
I. The body of death is not something that has come to us from without, an infected garment that may be thrown aside whenever we please. It is our own corrupt self, not our individual sins or evil habits. And this body of death disintegrates the purity and unity of the soul and destroys the love of God and man which is its true life. It acts like an evil leaven, corrupting and decomposing every good feeling and heavenly principle, and gradually assimilating our being to itself. There is a peculiar disease which often destroys the silkworm before it has woven its cocoon. It is caused by a species of white mould which grows rapidly within the body of the worm at the expense of its nutritive fluids; all the interior organs being gradually converted into a mass of flocculent vegetable matter. Thus the silkworm, instead of going on in the natural order of development to produce the beautiful winged moth, higher in the scale of existence, retrogrades to the lower condition of the inert senseless vegetable. And like this is the effect of the body of death in the soul of man. The heart cleaves to the dust of the earth, and man, made in the image of God, instead of developing a higher and purer nature, is reduced to the low, mean condition of the slave of Satan.
II. None but those who have attained to some measure of the experience of St. Paul can know the full wretchedness caused by this body of death. The careless have no idea of the agony of a soul under a sense of sin; of the tyranny which it exercises and the misery which it works. And even in the experience of many Christians there is but little of this peculiar wretchedness. Conviction is in too many instances superficial, and a mere impulse or emotion is regarded as a sign of conversion; and hence many are deluded by a false hope, having little knowledge of the law of God or sensibility to the depravity of their own hearts. But such was not the experience of St. Paul. The body of corruption that he bore about with him darkened and embittered all his Christian experience. And so it is with every true Christian. It is not the spectre of the future, or the dread of the punishment of sin, that he fears, for there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; but the spectre of the sinful past and the pressure of the present evil nature. The sin which he fancied was so superficial that a few years running in the Christian course would shake it off, he finds is in reality deep rooted in his very nature, requiring a life long battle. The fearful foes which he bears in his own bosom–sins of unrestrained appetite, sins that spring from past habits, frequently triumph over him; and all this fills him almost with despair–not of God, but of himself–and extorts from him the groan, O wretched man that I am! etc.
III. The evil to be cured is beyond human remedy. The various influences that act upon us from without–instruction, example, education, the discipline of life–cannot deliver us from this body of death.
IV. The work is Christs and not mans. We are to fight the battle in His name and strength, and to leave the issue in His hands. He will deliver us in His own way and time. Conclusion: We can reverse the illustration with which I began. If behind our renewed self is the spectral form of our old self, let us remember that behind all is the image of God in which we were created. The soul, however lost, darkened, and defaced, still retains some lineaments of the Divine impression with which it was once stamped. The image haunts us always; it is the ideal from which we have fallen and towards which we are to be conformed. To rescue that image of God, the Son of God assumed our nature, lived our life, and died our death; and His Spirit becomes incarnate in our heart and life, and prolongs the work of Christ in us in His own sanctifying work. And as our nature becomes more and more like Christs, so by degrees the old nature photographed by sin upon the soul will cease to haunt us, and the image of Christ will become more and more vivid. And at length only one image will remain. We shall see Him as He is, and we shall become like Him. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The body becoming a second personality
The writer represents himself as having two personalities–the inner man, and the outer man, i.e., the body. A word or two about the human body.
I. It is in the unregenerate man a personality. I am carnal, that is, I am become flesh. This is an abnormal, a guilty, and a perilous fact. The right place of the body is that of the organ, which the mind should use for its own high purpose. But this, through the pampering of its own senses, and through the creation of new desires and appetites, becomes such a power over man that Paul represents it as a personality, the thing becomes an ego.
II. As a personality it becomes a tyrant. It is represented in this chapter as a personality that enslaves, slays, destroys the soul, the inner man. It is a body of death. It drags the soul to death When man becomes conscious of this tyranny, as he does when the commandment flashes upon the conscience, the soul becomes intensely miserable, and a fierce battle sets in between the two personalities in man. The man cries out, What shall I do to be saved? Who shall deliver me?
III. As a tyrant it can only be crushed by Christ. In the fierce battle Christ came to the rescue, and struck the tyrant down. In this Epistle the writer shows that man struggled to deliver himself–
1. Under the teachings of nature, but failed (see chap. 1). He became more enslaved in materialism.
2. Under the influence of Judaism, but failed. By the deeds of the law no man was justified or made right. Under Judaism men filled up the measure of their iniquities. Who, or what, then, could deliver? No philosophers, poets, or teachers. Only one. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The body of death
1. St. Paul was not thinking with any fear of death. Indeed, toil worn and heart wearied as he was, he often would have been glad, had it been the Lords will. There was something that to a mind like Pauls was worse than death. It was the dominion of the carnal nature which strove to overrule the spiritual. The body of sin was to him the body of death. Who should deliver him from it?
2. Now, is the feeling from which such a cry as Pauls proceeds a real and noble feeling, or is it the mere outcry of ignorance and superstition? There are not wanting those who would say the latter. Why trouble ourselves, says one of these apostles of the new religion of science, about matters of which, however important they may be, we do know nothing, and can know nothing? We live in a world full of misery and ignorance; and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try and make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and ignorant. To do this effectually, it is necessary to be possessed of only two beliefs; that we can learn much of the order of nature; and that our own will has a considerable influence on the course of events. That is all that we need attend to. Any idea of God and a moral law belongs to cloudland. But is there not an instinct within us which rebels against this cool setting aside of everything that cannot be seen or handled? And is that instinct a low one? or is it the instinct of minds that come nearest to Divine?
3. Which is the higher type of man–which do you feel has got the firmer grip of the realities of life–the man calmly bending over the facts of outward nature, and striving to secure, as far as he can, conformity to them: or, the man, like Paul, believing that there was a moral law of which he had fallen short, a Divine order with which he was not in harmony–good and evil, light and darkness, God and the devil, being to him tremendous realities–his soul being the battlefield of a war between them, in the agony and shock of which conflict he is constrained to cry out for a higher than human help? I should say the man in the storm and stress of the spiritual battle; and I should say that to deny the reality of the sense of such a conflict was to deny facts which are as obvious to the spiritual intelligence as the fact that two and two make four is to the ordinary reason, and was to malign facts which are much higher and nobler than any mere fact of science, as the life of man is higher and nobler than the life of rocks or seas.
4. Minds wholly engrossed with intellectual or selfish pursuits may be unconscious of this conflict, and disbelieve its existence in other minds. So may minds that have reached that stage which the apostle describes as dead in sin; but to other minds, minds within which conscience still lives, within which exclusive devotion to one thought or interest has not obliterated every other, this conflict is a stern reality. Who that has lived a life with any spiritual element in it, and higher than the mere animals or worldlings, has not known that consciousness, and known its terror and power of darkness when it was roused into active life? it is of this consciousness Paul speaks. Under the pressure of it he cries out, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
5. And what answer does he find to that cry? Does the order of nature, or the powers of his own will help him here? Does not the very sight of the unbroken calm and steadfast regularity of the law and order of external nature add new bitterness to the conviction that he has forgotten a higher law and disturbed a still more gracious order? Is not the very conviction of the weakness of his own will one of the most terrible elements in his distress? Speak to a man under this consciousness of the power of sin about finding help to resist, through studying the laws of that nature of which he is himself a part, and through exercising that will, whose feebleness appalls him, and you mock him, as if you spoke to a man in a raging fever of the necessity of studying his own temperament and constitution, and of the duty of keeping himself cool. What is wanted in either case is help from some source of energy outside himself, who should restore the wasted strength from his own fountains of life–who should say to the internal conflict, Peace, be still. And that is what Paul found in Christ. He found it nowhere else. It is not to be found in knowledge, in science, in philosophy, in nature, in culture, in self.
6. Now, how did Paul find this in Christ? How may all find it? He was speaking about something infinitely more terrible than the punishment of sin, viz., the dominion of sin. What he wanted was an actual deliverance from an actual foe–not a promise of exemption from some future evil. And it was this that Paul realised in Christ. To him to live was Christ. The presence and the power of Christ possessed him. It was in this he found the strength which gave him the victory over the body of death. He found that strength in the consciousness that he was not a lonely soldier, fighting against an overpowering enemy, and in the dark, but that One was with him who had come from heaven itself to reveal to him that God was on his side, that he was fighting Gods battle, that the struggle was needed for his perfecting as the child of God. It was in the strength of this that he was able to give thanks for his deliverance from the body of death.
7. The consciousness of this struggle, the engagement in it in the strength of Christ, the victory of the higher over the lower, are in all the necessary conditions of spiritual health and continued life. To deny the reality of that conflict, and of the Divine life for which it prepares us, does not prove that these are not real and true. I take a man who does not know the Old Hundredth from God Save the Queen, and play him a piece of the sweetest music, and he says there is no harmony in it. I show a man who is colour blind two beautifully contrasted tints, and he sees but one dull hue: but still the music and the beauty of the colours exist, though not for him, not for the incapable ear and the undiscerning eye. So with the spiritual life. It is for the spiritual. (R. H. Story, D. D.)
The body of death
In Virgil there is an account of an ancient king, who was so unnaturally cruel in his punishments, that he used to chain a dead man to a living one. It was impossible for the poor wretch to separate himself from his disgusting burden. The carcase was bound fast to his body, its hands to his hands, its face to his face, its lips to his lips; it lay down and rose up whenever he did; it moved about with him whithersoever he went, till the welcome moment when death came to his relief. And many suppose that it was in reference to this that Paul cried out: O wretched man that I am! etc. Whether this be so or not, sin is a body of death, which we all carry about with us. And while I do not wish to shock your taste, yet I do wish to give you some impression of the unclean, impure, offensive nature of sin. And think–if our souls are polluted with such a stain–oh! think what we must be in the eyes of that God in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who charges His angels with folly. (E. Woods.)
The body of death
Doddridge thus paraphrases the latter half of this verse: Who shall rescue me, miserable captive as I am, from the body of this death, from this continued burden which I carry about with me, and which is cumbersome and odious as a dead carcase tied to a living body, to be dragged along with it wherever it goes? He adds in a note: It is well known that some ancient writers mention this as a cruelty practised by some tyrants upon miserable captives who felt into their hands; and a more forcible and expressive image of the sad case represented cannot surely enter into the mind of man. Of this atrocious practice one of the most remarkable instances is that mentioned by Virgil when describing the tyrannous conduct of Mezentius:–
The living and the dead at his command
Were coupled, face to face, and hand to hand;
Till, choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied,
The lingering wretches pined away and died.—(Dryden.)
Doddridge is not by any means singular in his opinion that the apostle derives an allusion from this horrid punishment; although perhaps the text is sufficiently intelligible without the illustration it thus receives. Philo, in an analogous passage, more obviously alludes to it, describing the body as a burden to the soul, carried about like a dead carcase, which may not till death be laid aside. (Kitto.) During the reign of Richard I, the following curious law was enacted for the government of those going by sea to the Holy Land–He who kills a man on shipboard shall be bound to the dead body and thrown into the sea; if a man be killed on shore the slayer shall be bound to the dead body and buried with it.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ the Deliverer
I. Mans need.
1. While man is, in special organs, inferior to one and another of the animals, he is collectively by far the superior of everyone. And yet, large as he is, man is not happy in any proportion to his nature, and to the hints and fore gleams which that nature gives. He has, in being clothed with flesh, all the points of contact with the physical world that the ox or the falcon has. He is born; he grows up with all the instincts and passions of animal life, and without them he could not maintain his foothold upon the earth. But man is also a creature of affections, which, in variety, compass and force, leave the lower creation in a vivid contrast. He is endowed with reason, moral sentiment and spiritual life; but he has learned but very imperfectly how to carry himself so that every part of his nature shall have fair play. The animal propensities are predominant. Here, then, begins the conflict between mans physical life and his moral life–the strife of gentleness, purity, joy, peace, and faith, against selfishness, pride, and appetites of various kinds.
2. To all souls that have been raised to their true life the struggle has been always severe. To have the power over our whole organisation without a despotism of our animal and selfish nature is the problem of practical life. How can I maintain the fulness of every part, and yet have harmony and relative subordination, so that the appetites shall serve the body, and the affections not be dragged down by the appetites; so that the moral sentiments and the reason shall shine clear and beautiful?
II. What remedies have proposed!
1. To give way to that which is strongest, has been one special method of settling the conflict. Kill the higher feelings and then let the lower ones romp and riot like animals in a field–this gives a brilliant opening to life; but it gives a dismal close to it. For what is more hideous than a sullen old man burnt out with evil? When I see men suppressing all qualms, and going into the full enjoyment of sensuous life, I think of a party entering the Mammoth Cave with candles enough to bring them back, but setting them all on fire at once. The world is a cave. They that burn out all their powers and passions in the beginning of life at last wander in great darkness, and lie down to mourn and die.
2. Another remedy has been in superstition. Men have sought to cover this conflict, rather than to heal it.
3. Others have compromised by morality. But this, which is an average of mans conduct with the customs and laws of the time in which he lives, comes nowhere near touching that radical conflict which there is between the flesh and the spirit.
4. Then comes philosophy, and deals with it in two ways. It propounds to men maxims and wise rules. It expounds the benefit of good, and the evils of bad conduct. And then it proposes certain rules of doing what we cannot help, and of suffering what we cannot throw off. And it is all very well. So is rosewater where a man is wounded unto death. It is not less fragrant because it is not remedial; but if regarded as a remedy, how poor it is!
5. Then comes scientific empiricism, and prescribes the observance of natural laws; but how many men in life know these laws? How many men are so placed that if they did know them, they would be able to use them? You might as well take a babe of days, and place a medicine chest before it, and say, Rise, and select the right medicine, and you shall live.
III. What, then, is the final remedy? What does Christianity offer in this case?
1. It undertakes to so bring God within the reach of every being in the world, that He shall exert a controlling power on the spiritual realms of mans nature, and, by giving power to it, overbalance and overbear the despotism of the radical passions and appetites. There is a story of a missionary who was sent out to preach the gospel to the slaves; but he found that they went forth so early, and came back so late, and were so spent, that they could not hear. There was nobody to preach to them unless he should accompany them in their labour. So he went and sold himself to their master, who put him in the gang with them. For the privilege of going out with these slaves, and making them feel that he loved them, and would benefit them, he worked with them, and suffered with them; and while they worked, he taught; and as they came back he taught; and he won their ear; and the grace of God sprang up in many of these darkened hearts. That is the story over again of God manifest in the flesh.
2. Many things can be done under personal influence that you cannot in any other way. My father said to me, when I was a little boy, Henry, take these letters to the post office. I was a brave boy; yet I had imagination. I saw behind every thicket some shadowy form; and I heard trees say strange and weird things; and in the dark concave above I could hear flitting spirits. As I stepped out of the door, Charles Smith, a great thick-lipped black man, who was always doing kind things, said, I will go with you. Oh! sweeter music never came out of any instrument than that. The heaven was just as full, and the earth was just as full as before; but now I had somebody to go with me. It was not that I thought he was going to fight for me. But I had somebody to succour me. Let anything be done by direction and how different it is from its being done by personal inspiration. Ah! are the Zebedees, then, so poor? John, take a quarter of beef and carry it down, with my compliments. No, stop; fill up that chest, put in those cordials, lay them on the cart, and bring it round, and I will drive down myself. Down I go; and on entering the house I hold out both hands, and say, Why, my old friend, I am glad I found you out. I understand the world has gone hard with you. I came down to say that you have one friend, at any rate. Now do not be discouraged; keep up a good heart. And when I am gone, the man wipes his eyes, and says, God knows that that mans shaking my hands gave me more joy than all that he brought. It was himself that I wanted. The old prophet, when he went into the house where the widows son lay dead, put his hands on the childs hands, and stretched himself across the childs body, and the spirit of life came back. Oh, if, when men are in trouble, there were some man to measure his whole stature against them, and give them the warmth of his sympathy, how many would be saved! That is the philosophy of salvation through Christ–a great soul come down to take care of little souls; a great heart beating its warm blood into our little pinched hearts, that do not know how to get blood enough for themselves. It is this that gives my upper nature strength, and hope, and elasticity, and victory.
Conclusion: We learn–
1. What is a mans depravity. When you say that an army is destroyed, you do not mean that everybody is killed; but that, as an army, its complex organisation is broken up. To spoil a watch you do not need to grind it to powder. Take out the mainspring. Well, the pointers are not useless. Perhaps not for another watch. There are a great many wheels inside that are not injured. Yes, but what are wheels worth in a watch that has no mainspring? What spoils a compass? Anything which unfits it for doing what it was intended to do. Now, here is this complex organisation of man. The royalties of the soul are all mixed up. Where conscience ought to be is pride. Where love ought to be is selfishness. Its sympathy and harmony are gone. It is not necessary that a man should be all bad to be ruined. Man has lost that harmony which belongs to a perfect organisation. And so he lives to struggle. And the struggle through which he is passing is the cause of human woe.
2. Why it is that the divinity of Christ becomes so important in the development of a truly Christian life. As a living man, having had the experiences of my own soul, and having been conversant with the experiences of others, what I want is power. And that is what they lack who deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. God can cleanse the heart. Man cannot. And that God whom we can understand is the God that walked in Jerusalem, that suffered upon Calvary, and that lives again, having lifted Himself up into eternal spheres of power, that He might bring many sons and daughters home to Zion. (H. Ward Beecher.)
The believers gratitude to God through Christ
I. Souls groaning under the body of sin and death can find no relief but through Jesus Christ. None but an almighty Saviour is suited to the case of a poor sinner. This doctrine reproves the Church of Rome, and others, for directing men, not to Christ, but to themselves; to their vows, alms, penances, and pilgrimages; or, to their greater watchfulness and strictness in life. But as Luther observes, How many have tried this way for many years, and yet could get no peace. Now, what is there in Christ that can relieve a soul?
1. The blood of Christ, which was shed as an atoning sacrifice for sin.
2. A perfect and everlasting righteousness. This our apostle, doubtless, had in view: for he immediately adds (Rom 8:1). Christ is made unto us of God, wisdom and righteousness.
3. The Spirit of Christ which is given to all true believers, as an abiding principle, teaching them to fight and war with sin.
II. That souls thus exercised, finding relief only in Christ, will actually receive and embrace Him. None will receive Christ, but they only who are taught to see their need of Him.
III. They, who see this relief in Christ, who receive and embrace it, must and will give thanks to God for it. The angels, those disinterested spirits, bringing the joyful news to our apostate world, sung, Glory to God in the highest, for peace on earth, and good will towards men. And surely, if we who are redeemed to God by His blood, should hold our peace on so joyful an occasion, the stones would immediately cry out.
IV. All those who have received Christ, and have given thanks to God for Him, will look upon Him as their Lord and their God. (J. Stafford.)
Nothing can equal the gospel
There is nothing proposed by men that can do anything like this gospel. The religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson is the philosophy of icicles; the religion of Theodore Parker was a sirocco of the desert covering up the soul with dry sand; the religion of Renan is the romance of believing nothing; the religion of Thomas Carlyle is only a condensed London fog; the religion of the Huxleys and the Spencers is merely a pedestal on which human philosophy sits shivering in the night of the soul, looking up to the stars, offering no help to the nations that crouch and groan at the base. Tell me where there is one man who has rejected that gospel for another, who is thoroughly satisfied, and helped, and contented in his scepticism, and I will take the ear tomorrow and ride five hundred miles to see him. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Victory through Christ
I can well remember a portion of a sermon which I heard when I was only five years of age. I recollect the cast of the preachers features, the colour of his hair, and the tone of his voice. He had been an officer in the army, and was in attendance on the Duke of Wellington during the great battle of Waterloo. That portion of the sermon which I can so well remember was a graphic description of the conflict which some pious souls have experienced with the powers of darkness before their final victory over the fear of death. He illustrated it by drawing in simple words a vivid description of the battle at Waterloo. He told us of the cool and stern nature of the Iron Duke, who seldom manifested any emotion. But the moments came when the Duke was lifted out of his stern rut. For a short time the English troops wavered, and showed signs of weakness, when the Duke anxiously exclaimed, I would to God that Blucher or the night had come! After a while a column of the French was driven before the English guards, and another column was routed by a bayonet charge of an English brigade. Wellington then calculated how long it would take to complete the triumph. Taking from his pocket his gold watch, he exclaimed, Twenty minutes more, and then victory! When the twenty minutes had passed the French were completely vanquished. Then the Duke, again taking out his watch, held it by the short chain, and swung it around his head again and again while he shouted, Victory! Victory! the watch flew out of his hand, but he regarded gold as only dust compared with the final triumph. This graphic description made a powerful impression on my childish mind. Young as I was, I at once saw the aptness of the illustration. I often dreamt about it, and told other lads the story. When I was a weeping penitent, praying for pardon, and struggling with unbelief, the scene of Waterloo came before me; but the moment the light of the Saviours smile fell upon my heart, I instinctively sprang to my feet and shouted, Victory! Victory! Many times, since I have been exclusively engaged in conducting special services, my memory has brought before me the preacher and the part of the sermon which I heard when I was only five years of age, and this has had its influence on me in my addresses to both old and young. (T. Oliver.)
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.–
I. Of whom does the apostle speak? Of those–
1. Who are enlightened.
2. But still under the law.
II. What does he affirm respecting them?
1. That they naturally approve the law.
2. Yet serve sire
III. What is the necessary conclusion?
1. That there is no deliverance by the law, or by personal effort.
2. But by Christ only. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Believers serve the law of God, though hindered by the law of sin
I. The life of a believer is chiefly taken up in serving the law of God. For this end the law is written upon his heart, and, therefore, he serves God with his spirit, or with his renewed mind. His whole man, all that can be called himself, is employed in a life of evangelical and universal obedience.
II. The believer may meet with many interruptions while he is aiming to serve the law of God. With my flesh the law of sin.
1. Had our apostle contented himself with the former part of this declaration, it would doubtless have been matter of great discouragement to the children of God. But when we find that the apostle himself confesseth his weakness and imperfection, whose heart would not take courage, and go forth more boldly to the conflict than ever?
2. After all the encouragement afforded to the mind of a believer, yet this is a very humbling subject. We may learn hence, how deeply sin is inwrought in our nature.
III. Although the believer meets with many interruptions, yet he holds on serving the law of God, even when he is delivered from all condemnation. I ground this observation on the close connection in which these words stand with the first verse of the next chapter. They are delivered from condemnation, and yet they serve the law of God, because they are delivered. (J. Stafford.)
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Rom 8:1-39
The place of the chapter in the argument
The struggle has passed away and the conqueror and the conquered are side by side. The two laws mentioned in the last chapter have changed places, the one becoming mighty from being powerless, the other powerless from being mighty. The helplessness of the law has been done sway in Christ, that its righteous requirement may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The apostle returns upon his previous track that he may contrast the two elements, not as in the previous chapter in conflict with each other, hopelessly entangled by occasion of the commandment, but in entire separation and opposition. These two, the flesh and the spirit, stand over against one another, as life and death, as peace and enmity, with God. Do what it will the flesh can never be subjected to the law of God. (Prof. Jowett.)
The connection between chaps. 7 and 8
The eighth chapter of Romans, and the preceding one, are the most profound psychological passages in the Bible; and in the higher spiritual elements they are more profound than anything in literature. The seventh chapter is the problem of conscience. The eighth is a solution of that problem by the formulas of love. In the seventh, a just man, tender of conscience and clear of understanding, with an active ideality, seeks to make a symmetrical life and perfect character–a thing which is impossible in this world. Under such circumstances every mistake rebounds, and every imperfection is caught upon the sensitive conscience, and becomes a source of exquisite suffering and of discouragement; so that, from the necessary conditions of human life, a just man will be made miserable in proportion as he seeks more vehemently to be just. One way out of this trouble would be to lower the standard of character and to lower the moral value of conduct. But the ease that comes from lowering our rule of right and our responsibilities to it is degrading. Thus to seek ease sends us down toward animals; and that is the true vulgarity. It is better to die in the prison house of the seventh of Romans than, missing the eighth, to get relief in any other direction. The problem of the higher moral life is how to maintain a higher transcendent ideal of character and conduct, and yet have joy and peace, even in the face of sins and imperfections. That is the problem. And its solution can only be found in one direction–in the direction of Divine love. A proper conception of God in the aspect of love, and a habit of bringing the instruments, and customs, and laws of paternal love to the consideration of our personal religious life, will go far to enlighten, stimulate, and comfort us. (H. W. Beecher.)
Out of the seventh chapter into the eighth
I defy any man to accomplish this except by that one word Christ. He who attempts it is like a leaf caught in the eddy of a stream: it whirls round and wants to get down the stream, but cannot go. The seventh of Romans is an eddy in which the conscience swings round and round in eternal disquiet; the eighth is the talisman through which it receives the touch of Divine inspiration, and is lifted above into the realm of true Divine beneficence. Or the transition may be illustrated thus–During the Indian Mutiny, when the English army were shut up in a city, besieged, almost at the point of death from starvation, and decimated by the constant assaults of the adversary, a Scotch lassie, who belonged to a Highland regiment, all at once thought she heard the sound of bagpipes afar off; and the soldiers laughed her to scorn. But after a little time others heard it. And then there came in note after note. By-and-by the sounds of the instruments of a full military band were recognised. And soon, from out of the forest, came the relief army, that broke up the siege and gave them deliverance. And with flying colours and glorious music they came marching up to the now released city. Such is the difference between the seventh chapter and the eighth. For here, in the seventh, is that first, far-off note of victory. After that descant of his own wretchedness, and poverty, and moral imbecility, comes the exclamation: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then, in the eighth chapter, he breaks into a discussion of the spirit life and the redemption of the flesh, and there are snatches, again and again, of that victorious note, growing stronger and fuller, till he comes clear down to the end, when he breaks out: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? etc. and there comes in the flying banners, the band and the full army. (H. W. Beecher.)
Living in the eighth chapter
A minister was once expounding the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans to a class of coloured Bible women, deeply experienced as to their hearts, but very ignorant, as he supposed, in their heads. After he had been talking quite eloquently for a little while, an old coloured woman interrupted him with: Why, honey, it pears like you dont understand them chapters. Why not, auntie? he said. What is the matter with my explanation? Why, honey, she said, you talk as if we were to live in that seventh chapter and only pay little visits to the blessed eighth. Well, he answered, that is just what I think. Dont you? With a look of intense pity for his ignorance, she exclaimed: Why, I lives in the eighth.
Bishop Temples testimony
Bishop Temple, preaching his farewell sermon in Exeter Cathedral, took for his text Rom 8:38-39. This eighth chapter, he said, always had a strange fascination for him above all other chapters in the New Testament. He did not speak of himself as having lived in the spirit of such a chapter, but he had found in it a picture of the man he would fain have been if he could. There was support in it which he had turned to over and over again for nearly fifty years and never without finding fresh power within it to help him on. The life therein portrayed was the life, if his weakness permitted, he desired to realise; and he urged upon his hearers to keep the chapter before them, to read it, repeat it constantly, making it the pattern they were endeavouring to realise while they were striving, in accordance with St. Johns exhortation, to purify themselves even as Christ is pure.
The chapter as a spiritual palace
Astyages determined on the death of the infant Cyrus. He summoned Harpagus, an officer of his court, and committed to him the destruction of the royal babe. Harpagus gave the babe to the herdsman Mithridates that he might expose him in the mountains. But Space, the wife of the herdsman, adopted the babe instead. Therefore Cyrus grows up in the peasants hut. He thinks the herdsman and his wife to be his parents. Ignorant of his birth, of his rightful destiny, of the palace and kingly state which were really his, he thinks himself only a peasants child. At last the secret of Cyruss birth and rightful place gets known, and he goes on to be the man standing out in such grand figure amid the dimness of that early time. What may be only legend about Cyrus is too sadly fact about too many Christians. They too often think themselves but peasants when they are really kings. They dwell in huts when God has built a palace for them. And the difficulty is that even when they may they will not see the palace in which God means that they shall dwell. This chapter is the spiritual palace in which God would have His children dwell. Let us glance at it.
I. There is in it no condemnation (verse 1).
II. Real internal spiritual ability (verses 2-4). Christ is not simply for the Christian in the no condemnation; Christ is also in the Christian in the indwelling Spirit of life.
III. The spirit of adoption (verse 15), i.e., there is for the Christian a genuine son placing.
IV. The witness of the Spirit (verse 16).
V. Heirship (verse 17). Poor the Christian may be here, but he walks the earth with all the wealth of heaven in reversion.
VI. The certainty that all things work together for good.
VII. Nothing that can really baffle him, for triumph is his surely since God is on his side (verses 31-39). (Homiletic Review.)
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.–
No condemnation
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. This is the result of the complete Divine provision which is made for our justification. There is therefore now no condemnation; this does not mean at this time, although that is perfectly true, but the word now means in this state of things. No condemnation. There is no damnatory sentence against them. There is no curse hanging like a thundercloud over their heads. There is no penal consequence following them. Who walk–that is, who act and who live not after the flesh–that is, not under the influence of the things which appeal to the eye and to the ear of the body–not under the power of the feelings which these things chiefly awaken and appeal to, and not according to the impulses and desires of human nature in its unsanctified state. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit–that is, in obedience to the dictates of the Spirit, and in response to the propensities of a soul possessed, not by the world and by the things of the world, but possessed and moved in all its impulses and in all its resolutions by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of holiness.
I. There is no condemnatory sentence in EXECUTION against Christians now. Believers in Christ Jesus sin. And their sins are noticed by God, and God is displeased with them; and God sometimes chides and corrects Christians for their sins, but He does not treat Christians as criminals. God deals with Christians as with children. There is no sentence of condemnation in execution against the disciples of Christ–none is being executed outwardly. Christians are exposed to suffering, but when they are corrected, the chastisement is paternal; when they are checked, the restraint is pitiful and loving; when they are disciplined, the training is in kindness; when they are called to die, death to them is but the commencement of a new and an everlasting life; so that it may be said with reference to them, that all things work together for their good. No sentence of condemnation is being executed against a Christian now outwardly, and none inwardly. You see that such a sentence might be executed in a Christians body, or in a Christians circumstances; or it might be executed inwardly without touching the body and without affecting the circumstances through such feelings as fear and remorse. But, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
II. There is no sentence of condemnation recorded for execution. The disciple of Christ is not reprieved, but pardoned; and his pardon is full and complete. Suppose that you wish to save some criminal under a sentence of death, what must you do for him? You must first get a remission of the capital punishment. The next thing that you must do for that man is to get him restored to his family and friends and to his former social position; and when you have done that, you must adopt some means by which to change the heart and the character of that man; and then you must effect the restoration of his possessions. This is the salvation that God dispenses to us. The man who trusts in Jesus Christ is immediately brought back to the position of a righteous being, and all the providences of God and the government of God have toward that man a thoroughly paternal aspect. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
III. The absence of all condemnation is accounted for by that which Christ is to the soul that relies upon Him. Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and faith in Jesus Christ appropriates the sin offering to the believer, so that all its sufficiency becomes ours when we trust to it. Observe further, that Christ Jesus is the High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us, and faith in Jesus gives us a personal interest in that intercession. Again, Christ Jesus is the second Adam, by whose obedience many are to be made righteous, and faith in Jesus makes that obedience the garment of our salvation. So that if all this be true, you see at once how impossible it is that there should be any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But a question may arise, How may I know that I am trusting in Gods Christ? The reality of our reliance in the Christ of God is proved by the character and style of our life–who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Jesus Christ leads all His disciples to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (S. Martin.)
The privilege of the saints
I. The persons mentioned. Those which are in Christ Jesus. Yea, so near and close an union as this indeed in the true nature of it, as that sometimes from hence we shall find the Church called by the name of Christ Himself, as 1Co 12:12. Though Christ, considered personally, is full and absolute in Himself, yet, considered relatively and mystically, so He is not full and complete without believers who are members of Him. We shall further inquire into the causes and grounds of this union.
1. We are knit to Christ, and made one with Him by His Spirit. Look as that member of the body is not united to the head, that is not animated and informed with the same soul that is in the head, so neither is that Christian truly united to Christ who is not quickened and enlivened by that Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His (verse 9). The second Adam is made a quickening spirit (1Co 15:45). And He quickeneth whom He will (Joh 5:21; 1Jn 4:21).
2. Another bond whereby we are knit to Christ is faith, which is a special gift and fruit of the Spirit; whereby, secondarily, we are united to Him, and lay hold on that righteousness which is in Him, and receive all that grace which is offered and tendered by Him in the gospel. The just shall live by faith (Gal 5:5). We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith (Gal 2:20). The life only I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. This is a very high honour and dignity unto them, and so to be accounted of by them; and, accordingly, it should have answerable effects and operations upon them, as–
(1) To exceeding joyfulness and exultation in this their condition: we see how all men for the most part do rejoice in the excellency of their relations, wives in their husbands, children in their parents. The nearer is the union to those who are of worth and renown the greater is the contentment; why, thus it should now be with believers in regard of Christ.
(2) It should work us to a conformity to Christ in our carriage; being one with Him we should behave ourselves suitably to Him. It is a shame for those who are one with Christ to walk in ways of opposition to Him.
(3) It may encourage Gods servants to depend upon Him for all things fitting and convenient for them, and to persuade themselves of His favour towards them. Therefore He will hear their prayers. And, on the other side, those that wrong them may be advised to take heed how they do so, for He takes their wrongs as done to Himself. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Isa 64:9, etc. And so much may be spoken of the first description of the persons here mentioned, taken from their state and condition.
2. The second is taken from their life and conversation; who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. These two they go still together; union with Christ and holiness of life they are inseparable. This passage before us is considerable here of us two manner of ways, separately and jointly. Separately, and so it consists of two distinct branches–the negative and the affirmative. The negative is in these words, which walk not after the flesh. The affirmative in these, but after the Spirit.
(1) To look upon it in the negative. Those that are true believers, and that are mystically united to Christ Jesus, they do not walk after the flesh. This is one character which is upon them. Thus, They which are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Gal 5:24). For the better understanding of this point, it is worth our while to inquire what it is to walk after the flesh, and who they are which are said thus to walk. By the flesh, then, we are here to understand not only that part of man which is commonly so called, to wit, the bodily lump; but by flesh here is meant corrupt nature, that is, that part of the man which is unsanctified and unregenerate in him. Not only the depravation of the inferior faculties of the soul, which we commonly call sensuality, but also a corruption of the superior, namely, the mind and understanding and will. Now, to walk after this flesh it is to be wholly led and carried and guided by the motions of it. Then men walk after the flesh when their whole course is carnal, when they are carnal in their judgments, following the dictates and suggestions of carnal reason; and carnal in their affections, setting their hearts and desires upon carnal things; and carnal in their lives, conversing and bestirring themselves in carnal ways. To walk after the flesh is not only to have the flesh in us; but to have the flesh prevailing in us, and to give ourselves up to the power and dominion of it. There is a walking in the flesh, and there is a walking after the flesh, as the Apostle Paul does plainly distinguish them concerning himself (2Co 10:2-3).
(2) The second is the affirmative, but walk after the Spirit. Those who are the children of God and true believers, they are careful to do this. And so they are represented in Scripture. Hence they are said to walk in the Spirit, to walk in newness of life, to serve in newness of Spirit, to walk with God, to have their conversation in heaven, and such phrases as these are. What is to be understood by walking after the Spirit we may gather from what was said of the contrary, namely, of walking after the flesh; and that is, to be guided and led and directed by the blessed and gracious Spirit of God in all our ways. Walking, it is a continued motion; it is a motion of perseverance; and so does denote constancy in him that uses it. And thus it is with those that are in Christ. They walk thus: the ground and foundation of this truth is the conformity of the members to the Head, and the obedience to the workmanship to Him who is the workman and fashioner of it. The union of a believer with Christ, and the relation wherein he stands unto Him, is not empty and fruitless, but is powerful and efficacious to a godly and holy life. Where there is an union with Christs person there is a communion in His graces and an habitation of His Spirit in us. Therefore, accordingly, we may judge of the one by the other We may know what we are by considering how we walk, and what is the frame and course of our lives (1Jn 1:6-7).
3. We may look upon it in its connection and conjunction of the parts of it with one another.
(1) Here is the addition of the one to the other, in that walking after the Spirit must be joined with not walking after the flesh. It is not enough for any to abstain from acts of wickedness, but they must also, and moreover, perform acts of goodness.
(2) Here is the exclusion of the one by the other. Walking in the flesh, it does take away walking after the Spirit (Gal 5:16; Php 3:19-20). There is no man that can serve two masters, especially such kind of masters as these are.
II. The second is the privilege or benefit belonging to these persons; and that is freedom and exemption from wrath and condemnation. There is no condemnation to them. Now for the better prosecution of it at this present time, we may look upon it as it lies here in the text three manners of ways, especially–First, in its specification. Secondly, in its amplifications. Thirdly, in its restriction or limitation.
1. In consideration of what Christ hath done for them. Those who are true believers, and who are incorporated into Christ Jesus, Christ hath done that for them which does absolutely and necessarily exempt them and free them from condemnation. As to instance in some particulars–
(1) He hath by His blood shedding taken away the guilt of sin from them. What is the guilt of sin? It is the desert of sin, which, by order of Gods justice, does bind the sinner over to punishment. This now by Jesus Christ is taken, away from all believers (Joh 1:29; Psa 32:12). This is that which Christ by His death hath obtained for us, that sin should not be imputed to us (Isa 38:17).
(2) As He hath taken away the guilt of sin from us, and freed us from condemnation in that respect, so He hath likewise imputed His righteousness to us, and freed us from condemnation.
(3) Christ hath fully answered the law, which is the strength of sin, fully paying the debt which was owing upon our account, both by enduring the penalty and doing that which the law requireth of us to be done by us (chap. 10:4).
2. Now, further, it is clear also that He hath done so from consideration of what He is to us. God justifies Christ, and in Him justifies us; sanctifies Christ, and through Him sanctifies us; glorifies Christ, and in Him glorifies us. He saves us not only personally, as we are such and such particular men–Peter, or James, or John–considered in individuo; but also relatively, with respect had to His Son, as we are parts and members of the mystical body of Christ, and are knit and united to Him as members to the Head. There is no condemnation to those who are the children of God, because they are in Christ Jesus. From the circumstance of their life and conversation, because they walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. An holy conversation in life shall have a happy condition after life; and there is no Condemnation at all which does follow upon it.
(1) Here is the extent of the benefit or privilege itself in the expression of universality: there is no condemnation whatsoever. This is true according to all the references of it. First, as to the ground or matter of condemnation. There is nothing which does afford occasion hereunto.
(2) In reference to the parties condemning. No condemnation to neither. Where there is nobody to condemn there can be no condemnation.
(3) In reference to the kinds of condemnation itself: neither present nor future, neither temporal nor eternal. The persons to whom the privilege does belong in the indefiniteness of the expression, Those that are in Christ Jesus, and that walk, etc., whosoever they be. This privilege of exemption from hell is not restrained only to some few particular Christians, but to all saints and believers in general without exception. The reason of it is this, because all are members of Christ, one as well as another. This is matter of comfort and encouragement to the poorest and meanest Christian that hath the truth of grace in him. The weakest believer hath an interest in eternal salvation as well as the greatest, even as the Apostle Paul himself. This is no ground for any to set themselves any stint or measure in holiness, or the improvement of grace in them; no, but rather to push on to perfection, as the apostle himself did, for his particular (Php 3:13-14). Though every Christian shall be alike Saved from condemnation, yet those which are eminent Christians, and do abound in grace above others, they have an advantage in two particulars. First, in the degrees of comfort here in this world. And, secondly, in the degrees of glory in the world to come. The restriction or limitation. To those who are in Christ Jesus, and who walk after the Spirit, etc., and none besides. The ground of this truth is this, because all the benefit we have from Christ flows from our union and communion with Him. Now the use and application of all which hath been said to ourselves may be reduced to two heads especially.
1. For matter of comfort and consolation. First of all, here is ground of very great encouragement and rejoicing to all true believers which are regenerate and born again, and incorporated and united to Christ, they are freed from condemnation; and, upon that account, from the greatest evil that their natures are capable of.
(1) If we speak of the evil of sin. Gods children they are not wholly exempt from this while they live here in this world. They have sin still abiding in them. Yea, but it is not in them so as to expose them to condemnation for all that. What a great advantage and happiness is this, if it be but duly and seriously considered.
(2) As to the evil of the affliction. It is a very great comfort and encouragement in this likewise. The saints and servants of God, while they live here in this world, they are subject to various afflictions: Many are the afflictions of the righteous (Psa 34:19). Yea, but as long as they are freed from condemnation, this may very much satisfy and content them. That though they are afflicted yet they are not, nor shall not, be condemned. Freedom from condemnation may swallow all other evils and inconveniences. That because they are afflicted therefore they are not condemned. Their present affliction secures them from future condemnation. This is that which the Apostle Paul does expressly declare unto us there in that place (1Co 11:31; 2Co 4:17). The second improvement of this point is in a way of counsel and admonition, and that to a two-fold purpose and effect. First, to be careful to make good our interest in Christ. And, secondly, to be careful to order aright our lives and conversations. (Thomas Horton.)
Absolute safety in Christ
I. The incomparable position Christian believers occupy. In Christ Jesus. This expression–
1. Is in keeping with what our Lord said in parable of vine and branches, and may be illustrated by reference to Noahs safety in ark; manslayers security in city of refuge.
2. Means–in His hands, thoughts, company, confidence, heart; to possess Him, and to be possessed by Him; to live in the circle of His love, and embrace of His power.
3. No wonder the highest ambition of the apostle was to be found in Him. To be in Christ now is the preparation for being with Him forever.
II. The inestimable blessings Christian believers enjoy. No condemnation.
1. This does not mean–
(1) There is no accusation; for Satan and our own hearts will accuse and seek to condemn.
(2) No ill deserts; for the life will not be perfect, there will be a constant falling short of the glory of God.
2. We are free from condemnation, because our Surety has died and satisfied the claims of Divine justice for us. Then–
(1) We can look back with joy. All wrong has been forgiven.
(2) We can look around. No officer of justice ready to arrest us, no sword of judgment ready to fall upon us.
(3) We can look forward and upward. The grave, the judgment seat, have no terrors, for God will glorify those whom He justifies.
3. No condemnation is but the negative side of salvation. There is a positive side; for we are not only freed from death, but lifted into life.
III. The infallible evidence by which we may know whether or not such position and blessedness are ours. Who walk not, etc. The words have been omitted in R.V., but we may take and use them here as embodying truths frequently expressed elsewhere. (F. W. Brown.)
The great assimilation; or, man christianised
Man in Christ is–
I. Freed from sin. The great inquiry of the world has been, How can man be thus freed? All temples, synagogues, mosques, and churches, have recognised the momentousness of the question. The struggles of expiring victims–the deep groans of humanity–have borne it aloft to the throne of the Eternal. The Eternal Himself has deigned to solve the difficulty, and to answer the inquiry.
1. Though man is not freed from sin as a matter of recollection, or from its natural sequences, or indiscriminately and unconditionally. Still in the highest sense he is consciously and progressively freed from the evil forces that enchain his being, to rise to altitudes far transcending those from which he fell.
2. This freedom is effected by the redeeming agency of Christ. Christ, in the entirety of His history, is condemnatory and destructive of all sin. Let a man be in communion with Christ, and with the certainty and uniformity of law his sin shall be destroyed. No being but Christ can hush the moral thunders which rumble in the conscience; no sacrifice but His can teach the tremendous evil of sin–no power but His can burst the bonds of evil habits–no spirit but His can engage the hearts affections, and restore them to the right object.
II. Advanced in moral excellency.
1. He realises the true idea of Divine holiness. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. The law is a transcript of the moral and transcendent excellency of the Divine nature, and mans heart becomes its abode. His holiness is not among the indigenous conceptions of the human mind, such as Roman bravery, Grecian beauty, Stoic passivity, and Pharisaical sanctity! Christ is our sanctification.
2. He minds the Spirit. The Divine Spirit speaks, and he attends to what is said.
3. He has a peaceful life.
4. He has the Spirit of Christ.
III. Destined to future glorification (verses 10, 11). Though he is freed from sin, and advanced in spiritual excellency, still he must die; but born to die, lie dies to live. In the case of Christ Himself, death was the condition of a higher life. The mind must die to one life to live another: it must renounce one set of ideas and dispositions to embrace higher ones. All around us seem to be the germs of the future. Man in the future is the continuation of man in the present. The principle of life casts off its exuviae, and constructs other and higher organisms.
IV. Will enjoy the glory which belongs to Christ Himself (verse 17; cf. 1Jn 3:2; Php 3:20-21). (J. Davies.)
At peace with God
I. The Christians state. In Christ. A union–
1. Vital.
2. Visible.
II. His character. He walks–
1. Not after the flesh–crucifixion: regulation.
2. After the Spirit–guidance: cooperation.
III. His privilege. No condemnation for–
1. Past offences.
2. The corruption of his nature.
3. His defective service.
4. His involuntary errors. (W. W. Wythe.)
No condemnation
I. The apostle doth not say there is now no affliction or correction. It is one thing to be afflicted, another thing to be condemned (1Co 11:32). Grace secures from eternal, not from temporal, evils. God cannot condemn and yet love, but He can chasten and yet love; nay, He chastens because He loves.
II. The apostle doth not say there is no matter of condemnation. There is a vast difference between what is deserved and what is actually inflicted. There is in all a corrupt nature, which puts forth itself in evil motions.
III. It is Gods condemnation only from which we are exempted.
1. Men condemn. What more common than for the godly to have their persons and practices, strict walking, condemned. Oh, they are hypocrites, factious, unnecessarily scrupulous, proud, and what not! Sometimes the condemnation is only verbal, going no further than bitter words, wherein their names are aspersed and their cause blackened. Sometimes it rises even to the taking away of their lives (Jam 5:6). But yet God condemns not (Psa 37:32-33).
2. Sometimes conscience condemns (1Jn 3:21). The inferior judge condemns in the court below, but the supreme Judge acquits and justifies in the court above.
3. Satan too condemns. He that is but Gods executioner will take upon him to be a judge. And as his pride puts him upon judging, so his malice puts him upon condemning.
IV. The particle now is to be taken notice of. I suppose the apostle doth not intend by it to point to any circumstance of time, as, namely, the present time of life, or the present time of the gospel. I make this to be only a causal particle; since things are so, as the apostle had made out in his preceding discourse, there is now–or upon all this–no condemnation. The apostle crowds the force of all that he had said by way of argument into this little word, and lays the whole stress of his conclusion upon it.
V. The original will hear it if we read it–not one condemnation. Such is the grace of God to believers, and such is their safety in their justified estate, that there is not so much as one condemnation to be passed upon them, the pardon being plenary and full (Jer 50:20).
VI. The apostle speaks indefinitely with respect to the subject. He takes all in Christ into the privilege. Had he spoken in the singular number, many poor, weak Christians would have been afraid to have applied this blessedness to themselves. The difference in Pauls expressing himself is very observable. Take him in the former chapter where he is bewailing sin, there he goes no further than himself. But now, where he is treating of privileges, he speaks altogether in the plural, as taking in the whole body of believers. VII. The positive is included in the negative. They shall not only, upon their being in Christ, be looked upon as not guilty, or barely kept out of hell, but they shall be judged completely righteous, and they shall also be eternally glorified. (T. Jacomb, D. D.)
No condemnation
We have here–
I. A new era. There has been a transition–
1. In the history of the Divine dispensation. Now we are no longer under the law of rite and precept, but under a covenant of gospel, wherein promise takes the place of threat, and the Holy Spirit is given to enlighten and sanctify.
2. In the experience of Christian life. The actual experience of believers comes to correspond with Gods dispensation. In the previous chapter the conflict of sin is described. Now we have the victory.
II. A new condition–In Christ Jesus.
1. Spiritual incorporation.
2. Vital union.
3. Efficient transfer. The Holy Spirit, on the part of God, and faith, on the part of man, are the instruments.
4. Practical reality. It is no superficial theory which fails before the progress of philosophy and reason. It is a certainty. Gods plan and all things in heaven and earth–conscience, death, judgment, etc.–will arrange themselves finally in accordance with it.
III. A new freedom–No condemnation.
1. The state goes before, involves, and it is itself greater than the privilege. You may bestow a gift on a strange child, but on your own you lavish affection and indulgence. The Christian is adopted into the family of God and possesses a childs privileges thereby.
2. Condemnation is more than sin–the simple transgression of the law. It is more than guilt–liability to punishment. It is doom pronounced after proved guilt.
3. Observe, the freedom does not remove the fact nor the guilt of sin, but arrests its effect–the punishment is repealed. To those who are not of Christ the sentence is still unrepealed.
4. No condemnation.
(1) None from God he has cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
(2) None from the law. Because the penalty has been paid
(3) None from conscience. There is no condemnation like that of an awakened conscience until the blood of Christ speaks peace.
(4) None from sin. If God has forgiven it, it cannot rise to condemnation.
(5) None at judgment.
Conclusion: The subject–
1. Urges those who have the evidence of faith to take firm gospel ground, to realise all that is intended by this negative way of putting the doctrine of justification. Live up to your privileges.
2. Addresses the Christless soul. You may be religious, but you are not falling into Gods method. You are labouring for that which is not bread, and perishing within sight of plenty. (Percy Strutt.)
Real Christians, absolved from condemnation
I. The persons described. Those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no phrase more frequently employed in the New Testament to denote a real Christian than this.
1. The phrase means something more than the being a Christian by a baptismal admission to the visible Church. But–
2. They represent Christ as a refuge, in which believers take shelter from that wrath of God, which naturally, by reason of sin, rests upon every man.
II. The blessing which they enjoy–No condemnation.
1. Then we are led to infer that out of Christ Jesus there is condemnation; and this is a truth which Scripture everywhere proclaims. Our own state, then, as we stand by ourselves, is one of certain ruin. It is in vain for us to flatter ourselves that we can ward off this impending anger by throwing around our characters the supposed defence of natural moral virtues. God regards us as transgressors, and, viewing us in that light, He cannot but inflict upon us sins tremendous penalty. He that hath not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
2. But for the Christian there is no condemnation. Being in Christ, God no longer regards him as standing alone, and not as he was in Adam. As one with Adam, he had Adams guilt imputed to him. But now, being one with Christ, Christs righteousness is imputed to him. Now God loves him, and blesses him, for the sake of Him who has become his Saviour.
III. The evidence afforded of their being in possession of the blessing–Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You have heard men speak of resting on Jesus; they have talked of His merit, of His dying for their sins, and they have professed to believe on His name. But the profession of faith has been everything, and the practice of faith has been nothing. Now the text only expresses what is expressed in Scripture over and over again; that every child of God will be a lover of practical piety. Faith in Christ will always bring forth the fruit of holiness. (W. Curling, M. A.)
Present discharge from condemnation must produce a present joy
Open the ironbound door of the condemned cell, and by the dim light that struggles through its bars read the sovereigns free pardon to the felon, stretched, pale and emaciated, upon his pallet of straw; and the radiance you have kindled in that gloomy dungeon, and the transport you have created in that felons heart, will be a present realisation. You have given him back a present life, you have touched a thousand chords in his bosom, which awake a present harmony; and where, just previous, reigned in that bosom sullen, grim despair, now reigns the sunlight joyousness of a present hope. Be yours, then, a present and a full joy. (O. Winslow, D. D.)
No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
I. When a sinner closes with Christ, God takes him on the instant into reconciliation. He should therefore feel his conscience to be relieved from the guilt and dread of his sins; and, instead of being any longer burdened with them as so many debts subject to a count on some future day, he has a most legitimate warrant for looking on the account as closed. Christ hath made atonement, and with it God is satisfied; and if so, well may you be satisfied.
II. Who they are that have this inestimable privilege.
1. They are in Christ. But lest we should wander into a region of obscurity, let us not forget that, for the purpose of being admitted into this state of community with the Saviour, the one distinct thing which you have to do is to believe in Him. There is nothing mystical in the act by which you award to Him the credit for His declarations; and this is the act by which you are grafted in the Saviour. As you hold fast the beginning of your confidence and persevere therein, the tie will be strengthened; the relationship will become more intimate; the communications of mutual regard will become more frequent, and more familiar to your experience.
2. They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
(1) Your release from condemnation is suspended on your being in Christ Jesus. But it is not so suspended on your walking not after the flesh, etc. The first is the origin of your justification; the second is the fruit of it. Mark the embarrassment of that disciple who postpones his enjoyment of this privilege until he is satisfied with himself that he walketh not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Look to the heavy disadvantage under which he toils at the work of new obedience; and how the spirit of bondage is sure to be perpetuated within him. There may be the outward compliance of a slave, but none of the inward graces or aspirations of a saint. The truth is, that if this immunity from condemnation is a thing purchased by us because of our walking not after the flesh, then will conscience ever be suggesting to us that the purchase has not been made good; and all the jealousies of a bargain will ever and anon rise up between the parties. God will be feared, or distrusted; but He cannot be loved under such an economy.
(2) There is a better way of ordering this matter. Deliverance from condemnation is not the goal, but the starting post of the Christians race; and, instead of labouring to make good the inaccessible station where forgiveness shall be awarded to him, he is sent forth with the inspiration of one who knows himself to be forgiven on the way of all the commandments. Delivered from the engrossment of his before slavish apprehensions, he can now with newborn liberty walk after the Spirit on the path of a progressive holiness. First trust in the Lord, and then be doing good. A workman to whom a tool is indispensable, you would never bid him work for the tool, but you would put the tool into his hand and bid him work by it.
(3) But mark this distinction between the consequence and the cause, though it gives to the obedience of a believer its proper place, does not make that obedience less sure. What the worldly or hypocritical professor thinks to be faith is nought but fancy or worse if it be not followed by the walk of godliness. It is just as true as if your virtue were the price of your salvation, that there will be no salvation for you if you have no virtue. The ultimate design of the gospel economy is to make those who sit under it zealous of good works. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
I. The condemnation here mentioned. As to its direct and proper notation, it signifies judgment against one. The non-condemnation of persons in Christ may be proved by, or is grounded upon–
1. Their justification. He that is a justified man cannot be a condemned man, for these two are contrary and incompatible.
2. Their sanctification. Wherever the union is with the Son there is sanctification by the Spirit. Now such as are sanctified shall never be condemned (Rev 20:6), for upon this the power and dominion of sin is taken away, the bent of the heart is for God, and there is the participation of the Divine nature.
3. Their union with Christ. Those that are so near to Christ here, shall they be set at an eternal distance from Him hereafter? will the Head be so severed from His members? Besides, upon this union there is interest in all that Christ hath done and suffered; he that is in Christ hath a right to all of Christ.
II. The application.
1. This proclaims the misery of all who are not in Christ Jesus. The cloud is not so bright towards Israel but it is as dark towards the Egyptians. There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ; what more sweet? but there is nothing but condemnation to them who are out of Christ; what more dreadful?
(1) It is God Himself who will be your judge, and who will pass the condemnatory sentence upon you.
(2) Think with yourselves what this condemnation is.
(3) The condemnatory sentence being once passed it will be irreversible and irresistible.
(4) The unbeliever will be condemned by himself.
(5) This condemnation will be the sadder to such who live under the gospel, because they will lie under the conviction of this, that they have foolishly brought all this misery upon themselves.
2. I would exhort you to make sure of this exemption from condemnation. What can be so worthy of our utmost endeavours! what pitiful trifles and very nothings are all other things in comparison of these! What are we to do that it may be to us no condemnation?
(1) Let sin be condemned in yon and by you. For sin must either be condemned by you, or you for it.
(2) Condemn yourselves and God will not condemn you.
(3) Speedily get your peace made with God through Christ Jesus.
(4) Pray that it may be to you exemption from condemnation. Of all evils deprecate this as the greatest evil.
(5) Make sure of faith, which secures us from condemnation, both as it is the grace which unites to Christ, and also as it is the great condition of the gospel upon which it promises life and salvation. Unbelief is the damning sin, and faith is the saving grace.
(6) Get into Christ, so as to be in Christ Jesus. For they, and they only, are out of the danger of condemnation.
3. I would speak to those who are in Christ, to excite them to be very thankful and highly to admire the grace of God. How doth the traitor admire the grace and clemency of his prince who sends him a pardon when he expected him trial and sentence to die? And as you must be thankful to God the Father, so, in special, to Jesus Christ; it is He who was willing to be condemned Himself that He might free you from condemnation.
4. The main tendency and drift of this truth is comfort to believers. This no condemnation is the ground of all consolation.
(1) Get assurance in your own souls that there is to you no condemnation. It is a sad thing to live under peradventures about this.
(2) Let this happiness be a great incentive to holiness. It is good to infer duty from mercy. (T. Jacomb, D. D.)
In Christ no condemnation
1. Paul having said, So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin, goes on to say, without any break, There is therefore now, etc. Believers are in a state of conflict, but not in a state of condemnation. The man to whom every sin is a misery is the man who may with confidence declare, There is therefore now no condemnation.
2. The text is written in the present tense. This now shows how distinctly the statement of non-condemnation is consistent with that mingled experience of the seventh chapter. With all my watching and warring, yet will I rejoice in the Lord even now; for there is therefore now no condemnation.
3. Observe our apostles change of expression. When he is speaking about the inward contention he speaks of himself, but when he comes to write upon the privileges of the children of God, he speaks of them in general terms. His is the confession, and theirs is the confidence. Note–
I. A refutation of the old serpents gospel. Say There is no condemnation, and this false gospel is before you. The serpent promulgated this in Eden, when he said, Ye shall not surely die. Some teach that you may live in sin, and die impenitent, but at death there is an end of you. Others tell us that if you die unforgiven it will be a pity, but you will come round in due time, after a purgatorial period. Here is Pauls refutation. They would be condemned, every one of them, if it had not been that they are in Christ Jesus. The word now is as applicable to these condemned ones as to those who are freed from condemnation. He that believeth not is condemned already. There is nothing but condemnation so long as they remain in that state. He that believeth not shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
II. A description of the believers position–in Christ Jesus.
1. By faith. By nature I am in myself, and in sin, and, therefore, condemned; but when I fly to Christ, and trust alone in His blood and righteousness, He becomes to me the cleft of the rock, wherein I hide myself. He that believeth shall not come into condemnation.
2. As our federal head. This is the teaching of chap. 5. As you were in Adam you sinned, and therefore you were condemned; and as you were in Christ through the Divine covenant of grace, and Christ fulfilled the law for you, you are justified in Him.
3. By a vital union. This is the teaching of chap. 6. (verses 4, 5). We are actually one with Christ by living experience.
4. By a mystical union (Rom 7:1-4). Shall the spouse of Christ be condemned with the world? Christ loved His Church, and gave Himself for it; shall she be condemned despite His death?
III. A description of the believers walk–who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In R.V. this sentence is omitted, and rightly so. The oldest copies are without it, the versions do not sustain it, and the fathers do not quote it. How, then, did it get into the text? Probably by general consent, in order that the great truth of the non-condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus might be guarded from that antinomian tendency which would separate faith from good works. But the fear was groundless, and the tampering with Scripture was unjustifiable. Where did the man who made the gloss get his words from? From ver.
4. A man in Christ has received the Holy Ghost, for he walks according to His guidance. He is also quickened into the possession of a new nature called the spirit–the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He is no longer in the flesh, he has become a spiritual man. Observe carefully that the flesh is there, only he does not walk after it. Combine the two clauses. On the one hand look to Christ alone, and abide in Him; and then look for the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is to be in you. By faith we are in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in us.
IV. The absolution of the believer: There is therefore now no condemnation. This is–
1. A bold speech. Free grace makes men speak bravely when their faith has a clear view of Jesus.
2. A proved fact. The demonstrations of mathematics are not more clear and certain than the inference that if we are in Christ, and Christ died in our stead, there can be no condemnation for us.
3. A broad assertion. No condemnation–
(1) On account of original sin, though the believer was an heir of wrath even as others.
(2) For actual sin, though he greatly transgressed and came far short of the glory of God. If you read to the end of the chapter you see how unreserved Paul was in his statement (verses 33, 34). Paul makes all heaven and earth and hell to ring with his daring challenge.
4. An abiding statement. It was true in Pauls day, and it is just as true at this moment. If you are in Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation.
5. A joyful realisation. If you have ever been burdened with a sense of sin you will know the sweetness of the text.
6. The most practical thing that ever was, because the moment a man receives this assurance into his soul his heart is won to his loving Lord, and the neck of his sinfulness is broken with a blow. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The blessed experience of those who are in Christ
I. They are freed from condemnation.
II. They are most clearly distinguished from those who remain under condemnation.
1. By the temper of their minds (verse 5).
2. By the condition of their hearts (verse 6).
3. By their relation to God (verses 7, 8).
4. By the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ (verse9).
III. They are blessed with the hope of a better life. The Spirit–
1. Lives in them, though their bodies are mortal through sin.
2. Is the earnest of a more glorious life.
3. Will ultimately quicken their mental bodies and fashion them like unto Christ (verses 10, 11). (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The saints union with Christ
Note, by way of introduction–
1. The difference betwixt saints being in Christ, and Christ being in them. Christ is in the believer by His Spirit (1Jn 4:13; 1Co 12:13); the believer is in Christ by faith (Joh 1:12). Christ is in the believer by inhabitation (Eph 3:17); the believer is in Christ by implantation (Joh 15:2; Rom 6:3). Christ in the believer implieth life and influence from Christ (Col 3:4; 1Pe 2:5); the believer in Christ implieth communion and fellowship with Christ (1Co 1:30). When Christ is said to be in the believer, it is in reference to sanctification; when the believer is said to be in Christ, it is in order to justification.
2. This union in Scripture is set forth sometimes by the saints abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in them (Joh 15:4; 1Jn 3:24); sometimes by Christs living in them (Gal 2:20, etc.); sometimes by that oneness that is betwixt Christ and them (Joh 17:21-22). And some make that gathering together in one all things in Christ (Eph 1:10) to point to this union.
3. The Scripture speaks of a three-fold union.
(1) The union of three persons in one nature, as in the Trinity.
(2) The union of two natures in one person, as in Christ.
(3) The union of persons, where yet persons and natures are distinct. This is the mystical union which is betwixt Christ and believers, concerning which note–
I. Its nature. Here is–
1. Union but no transmutation, confusion, or commixtion. Believers are united to Christ, but yet not so as that they are changed or transformed into the very essence or being of Christ (so as to be Christed with Christ, as some too boldly speak); or that He is changed or transformed into the essence and being of believers. Christ is Christ still, and believers are but creatures still.
2. Union of persons, but not personal union. And here lies the difference between the mystical union and the hypostatical union. There is this nature and that nature in Christ, but not this person and that person. In the mystical union the person of Christ is united to the person of the believer, for faith being the uniting grace, and this faith receiving the person of Christ, it must also unite to the person of Christ. In the marriage-union it is person joined to person, and so it is in the mystical union.
3. But this union is not personal; it is but mystical. Otherwise it would be so many believers, so many Christs; and then the believer would have no subsistence but in Christ.
II. Its several kinds or branches.
1. The legal union. The ground of this is Christs suretyship (Heb 7:22). In law the debtor and the surety are but one person; and therefore both are equally liable to the debt; and if the one pay it it is as much as if the other had paid it. So it is with Christ and us.
2. The moral union. It is called moral from the bond or ground of it, which is love. There is a real oneness between friend and friend. There is a mutual, hearty love between Christ and believers, and by virtue of this there is a real and close union betwixt them.
III. The scripture resemblances by which it is set forth.
1. That of husband and wife. Christ and believers stand in this relation. He is their husband, they His spouse (2Co 11:2); married to Christ (Rom 7:4); betrothed to God and Christ (Hos 2:19); their name is Hephzibah and Beulah (Isa 62:4). This union, in the very height of it, the apostle brings down to Christ and believers (Eph 5:28-29).
2. That of the head and members. In the body natural there is a near and close union between these two. Thus it is with Christ and believers in the body mystical; He is the Head, they are the several members (Col 1:18; Eph 1:22; 1Co 12:27; Rom 12:5).
3. That of the root and branches. There is also union betwixt these; otherwise how should the one convey juice, sap, nourishment, growth, to the other? So it is with Christ and believers; He is the Root, they the branches (Joh 15:5). You read of being planted and ingrafted into Christ (Rom 6:5; Rom 11:17, etc.); of being rooted in Christ (Col 2:7).
4. The foundation and the building. In a building all the stones and timber, being joined and fastened together upon the foundation, make but one structure. So it is here. Believers are Gods building, and Christ is the foundation in that building (1Co 3:9; 1Co 3:11; Eph 2:20). As a man builds upon the foundation and lays the stress of the whole building upon that; so the true Christian builds upon Christ; all his faith, hope, confidence, is built upon this sure foundation (Psa 28:26). Hence also they are said, As lively stones to be built up in a spiritual house, etc. (1Pe 2:5).
5. That of meat or food. That which a man feeds upon and digests, it is incorporated with, and made a part of himself. The believing soul by faith feeds upon Christ, so that Christ becomes one with him and he one with Christ (Joh 6:55-56).
IV. Its properties. It is–
1. A sublime union, in respect of–
(1) Its nature. Next to the union of the Three Persons in the sacred Trinity, and the hypostatical union of the two natures in Christ, the mystical union is the highest.
(2) Its origin. The more supernatural a thing is the more sublime it is; now this union is purely supernatural as to the thing, and also as to the person to whom it belongs.
(3) The high and glorious privileges and consequents of it.
(4) Its mysteriousness. The union of the body and soul in man is a great mystery; but the union of Christ and the believer is a far greater.
2. A real union. Not a notional, fantastic thing, or something that dull persons please themselves with the thoughts of (Joh 17:22).
3. A spiritual union. Not a gross, corporeal union. The husband and the wife are one flesh, but he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
4. A near, intimate union (1Co 6:17).
5. A total union (1Co 6:15).
6. An immediate union. Christ and the believing soul they touch each the other. There is nothing that doth intervene or interpose between Christ and it.
7. An indissoluble union. Christ and believers are so firmly joined together that none shall ever be able to part them. (T. Jacomb, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. O wretched man that I am, c.] This affecting account is finished more impressively by the groans of the wounded captive. Having long maintained a useless conflict against innumerable hosts and irresistible might, he is at last wounded and taken prisoner and to render his state more miserable, is not only encompassed by the slaughtered, but chained to a dead body; for there seems to be here an allusion to an ancient custom of certain tyrants, who bound a dead body to a living man, and obliged him to carry it about, till the contagion from the putrid mass took away his life! Virgil paints this in all its horrors, in the account he gives of the tyrant Mezentius. AEneid, lib. viii. ver. 485.
Quid memorem infandas caedes? quid facta tyranni?
MORTUA quin etiam jungebat corpora VIVIS,
Componens manibusque manus, atque oribus ora;
Tormenti genus! et sanie taboque fluentes
Complexu in misero, longa sic morte necabat.
What tongue can such barbarities record,
Or count the slaughters of his ruthless sword?
‘Twas not enough the good, the guiltless bled,
Still worse, he bound the living to the dead:
These, limb to limb, and face to face, he joined;
O! monstrous crime, of unexampled kind!
Till choked with stench, the lingering wretches lay,
And, in the loathed embraces, died away! Pitt.
Servius remarks, in his comment on this passage, that sanies, mortui est; tabo, viventis scilicet sanguis: “the sanies, or putrid ichor, from the dead body, produced the tabes in the blood of the living.” Roasting, burning, racking, crucifying, c., were nothing when compared to this diabolically invented punishment.
We may naturally suppose that the cry of such a person would be, Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead body? And how well does this apply to the case of the person to whom the apostle refers! A body-a whole mass of sin and corruption, was bound to his soul with chains which he could not break and the mortal contagion, transfused through his whole nature, was pressing him down to the bitter pains of an eternal death. He now finds that the law can afford him no deliverance; and he despairs of help from any human being; but while he is emitting his last, or almost expiring groan, the redemption by Christ Jesus is proclaimed to him; and, if the apostle refers to his own case, Ananias unexpectedly accosts him with-Brother Saul! the Lord Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me unto thee, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. He sees then an open door of hope, and he immediately, though but in the prospect of this deliverance, returns God thanks for the well-grounded hope which he has of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
O wretched man that I am! The word signifies one wearied out with continual combats.
Who shall deliver me? It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing and panting after deliverance: the like pathetical exclamations are frequent: see Psa 55:6. One calls this verse, gemitus sanctorum, the groan of the godly.
From the body of this death; or, from this body of death; or, by a Hebraism, from this dead body, this carcass of sin, to which I am inseparably fastened, as noisome every whit to my soul as a dead carcass to my senses. This is another circumlocution, or denomination of original sin. It is called the body of sin, Rom 6:6, and here the body of death; it tends and binds over to death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. O wretched man that I am! whoshall deliver me from the body of this death?The apostlespeaks of the “body” here with reference to “the lawof sin” which he had said was “in his members,” butmerely as the instrument by which the sin of the heart finds vent inaction, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites (see on Ro6:6, and Ro 7:5); and he callsit “the body of this death,” as feeling, at themoment when he wrote, the horrors of that death (Ro6:21, and Ro 7:5) into whichit dragged him down. But the language is not that of a sinner newlyawakened to the sight of his lost state; it is the cry of a livingbut agonized believer, weighed down under a burden which is nothimself, but which he longs to shake off from his renewed self. Nordoes the question imply ignorance of the way of relief at the timereferred to. It was designed only to prepare the way for thatoutburst of thankfulness for the divinely provided remedy whichimmediately follows.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O wretched man that I am,…. Not as considered in Christ, for as such he was a most happy man, being blessed with all spiritual blessings, and secure from all condemnation and wrath; nor with respect to his inward man, which was renewing day by day, and in which he enjoyed true spiritual peace and pleasure; nor with regard to his future state, of the happiness of which he had no doubt: he knew in whom he had believed; he was fully persuaded nothing could separate him from the love of God; and that when he had finished his course, he should have the crown of righteousness laid up for him: but this exclamation he made on account of the troubles he met with in his Christian race; and not so much on account of his reproaches, persecutions, and distresses for Christ’s sake; though these were many and great, yet these did not move or much affect him, he rather took delight and pleasure in them; but on account of that continual combat between, the flesh and spirit in him; or by reason of that mass of corruption and body of sin he carried about with him; ranch such a complaint Isaiah makes, Isa 6:5, which in the Septuagint is,
, “O miserable I”. This shows him to be, and to speak of himself as a regenerate man; since an unregenerate man feels no uneasiness upon that score, or makes any complaint of it, saying as here,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? or “this body of death”; by which some understand, this mortal body, or the body of flesh subject to death for sin; and suppose the apostle expresses his desire to quit it, to depart out of it, that he might enjoy an immortal life, being weary of the burden of this mortal body he carried about with him: so Philo the Jew s represents the body as a burden to the soul, which , “it carries about as a dead carcass”, and never lays down from his birth till his death: though it should be observed, that when the apostle elsewhere expresses an earnest longing after a state of immortality and glory, some sort of reluctance and unwillingness to leave the body is to be observed, which is not to be discerned here; and was this his sense, one should think he would rather have said, when shall I be delivered? or why am I not delivered? and not who shall deliver me? though admitting this to be his meaning, that he was weary of the present life, and wanted to be rid of his mortal body, this did not arise from the troubles and anxieties of life, with which he was pressed, which oftentimes make wicked men long to die; but from the load of sin, and burden of corruption, under which he groaned, and still bespeaks him a regenerate man; for not of outward calamities, but of indwelling sin is he all along speaking in the context: wherefore it is better by “this body of death” to understand what he in Ro 6:6 calls “the body of sin”; that mass of corruption that lodged in him, which is called “a body”, because of its fleshly carnal nature; because of its manner of operation, it exerts itself by the members of the body; and because it consists of various parts and members, as a body does; and “a body of death”, because it makes men liable to death: it was that which the apostle says “slew” him, and which itself is to a regenerate man, as a dead carcass, stinking and loathsome; and is to him like that punishment Mezentius inflicted on criminals, by fastening a living body to a putrid carcass t: and it is emphatically called the body of “this death”, referring to the captivity of his mind, to the law of sin, which was as death unto him: and no wonder therefore he so earnestly desires deliverance, saying, “who shall deliver me?” which he speaks not as being ignorant of his deliverer, whom he mentions with thankfulness in Ro 7:25; or as doubting and despairing of deliverance, for he was comfortably assured of it, and therefore gives thanks beforehand for it; but as expressing the inward pantings, and earnest breathings of his soul after it; and as declaring the difficulty of it, yea, the impossibility of its being obtained by himself, or by any other than he, whom he had in view: he knew he could not deliver himself from sin; that the law could not deliver him; and that none but God could do it; and which he believed he would, through Jesus Christ his Lord.
s De Agricultura, p. 191. t Alexander ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 5,
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
O wretched man that I am ( ). “Wretched man I.” Old adjective from , to bear, and , a callus. In N.T. only here and Re 3:17. “A heart-rending cry from the depths of despair” (Sanday and Headlam).
Out of the body of this death ( ). So the order of words demands. See verse 13 for “death” which finds a lodgment in the body (Lightfoot). If one feels that Paul has exaggerated his own condition, he has only to recall 1Ti 1:15 when he describes himself a chief of sinners. He dealt too honestly with himself for Pharisaic complacency to live long.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wretched [] . Originally, wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.
Who [] . Referring to a personal deliverer.
Body of this death [ ] . The body serving as the seat of the death into which the soul is sunk through the power of sin. The body is the literal body, regarded as the principal instrument which sin uses to enslave and destroy the soul. In explaining this much – disputed phrase, it must be noted :
1. That Paul associates the dominion and energy of sin prominently with the body, though not as if sin were inherent in and inseparable from the body.
2. That he represents the service of sin through the body as associated with, identified with, tending to, resulting in, death. And therefore,
3. That he may properly speak of the literal body as a body of death – this death, which is the certain issue of the abject captivity to sin.
4. That Paul is not expressing a desire to escape from the body, and therefore for death.
Meyer paraphrases correctly : “Who shall deliver me out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve as the seat of this shameful death ?” Ignatius, in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, speaks of one who denies Christ ‘s humanity, as nekroforov one who carries a corpse.
I myself. The man out of Christ. Looking back and summing up the unregenerate condition, preparatory to setting forth its opposite in ch. 8. Paul says therefore, that, so far as concerns his moral intelligence or reason, he approves and pays homage to God ‘s law; but, being in bondage to sin, made of flesh, sold under sin, the flesh carries him its own way and commands his allegiance to the economy of sin.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “0 wretched man that I am!” (talaiporos ego anthropos) “O wretched man I am;” In the battle of the conscience, so conscious of daily guilt of sin, yet longing to honor and please Christ, full of testings, challenged by tedious toils and hard labors and conflicts -there is a wail of anguish and a cry for help in the saint’s struggling voice if this body ends all!
2) “Who shall deliver me,” (tis me brusetai) “Who will deliver, release, or set me free;” Who? Who else, but the Lamb of God, Joh 1:29; who else, but the one on the throne who has conquered sin and death for every man, Heb 2:9; Rev 5:1-2; Rev 5:5-12; Rom 8:11.
3) “From the body of this death?” (ek tou somatos tou thanatou toutou;) “Out of the body of this death?” Or how shall I escape this dead body – body of death nature! The “who” answer is Jesus Christ, who is alive forevermore, to raise and bring all his own to himself, and his church to a more intimate affinity to him, Joh 14:1-3; 1Co 15:51-52; 1Co 15:57; 1Th 4:13-18; Php_3:20-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24. Miserable, etc. He closes his argument with a vehement exclamation, by which he teaches us that we are not only to struggle with our flesh, but also with continual groaning to bewail within ourselves and before God our unhappy condition. But he asks not by whom he was to be delivered, as one in doubt, like unbelievers, who understand not that there is but one real deliverer: but it is the voice of one panting and almost fainting, because he does not find immediate help, (232) as he longs for. And he mentions the word rescue, (233) in order that he might show, that for his liberation no ordinary exercise of divine power was necessary.
By the body of death he means the whole mass of sin, or those ingredients of which the whole man is composed; except that in him there remained only relics, by the captive bonds of which he was held. The pronoun τούτου this, which I apply, as [ Erasmus ] does, to the body, may also be fitly referred to death, and almost in the same sense; for Paul meant to teach us, that the eyes of God’s children are opened, so that through the law of God they wisely discern the corruption of their nature and the death which from it proceeds. But the word body means the same as the external man and members; for Paul points out this as the origin of evil, that man has departed from the law of his creation, and has become thus carnal and earthly. For though he still excels brute beasts, yet his true excellency has departed from him, and what remains in him is full of numberless corruptions so that his soul, being degenerated, may be justly said to have passed into a body. So God says by Moses,
“
No more shall my Spirit contend with man, for he is even flesh,” (Gen 6:3 🙂
thus stripping man of his spiritual excellency, he compares him, by way of reproach, to the brute creation. (234)
This passage is indeed remarkably fitted for the purpose of beating down all the glory of the flesh; for Paul teaches us, that the most perfect, as long as they dwell in the flesh, are exposed to misery, for they are subject to death; nay, when they thoroughly examine themselves, they find in their own nature nothing but misery. And further, lest they should indulge their torpor, Paul, by his own example, stimulates them to anxious groanings, and bids them, as long as they sojourn on earth, to desire death, as the only true remedy to their evils; and this is the right object in desiring death. Despair does indeed drive the profane often to such a wish; but they strangely desire death, because they are weary of the present life, and not because they loathe their iniquity. But it must be added, that though the faithful level at the true mark, they are not yet carried away by an unbridled desire in wishing for death, but submit themselves to the will of God, to whom it behoves us both to live and to die: hence they clamor not with displeasure against God, but humbly deposit their anxieties in his bosom; for they do not so dwell on the thoughts of their misery, but that being mindful of grace received, they blend their grief with joy, as we find in what follows.
(232) Ταλαίπωρος, miser, ærumnosus; “it denotes,” says [ Schleusner ], “one who is broken down and wearied with the most grievous toils.” It is used by the Septuagint for the word שדוד, wasted, spoiled, desolated. See Psa 137:8; Isa 33:1. — Ed.
(233) “ Eripere “ — pluck out, rescue, take away by force; ῥύσεται — shall draw, rescue or extricate; it means a forcible act, effected by power. — Ed.
(234) “This body of death” is an evident Hebraism, meaning “this deadly or mortiferous body;” which is not the material body, but the body of “the old man,” Rom 7:6; called the “body of sin,” when its character is described, and the “body of death,” when the issue to which it leads is intended: it conducts to death, condemnation, and misery. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE BONDMANA BOOK REVIEW
Rom 7:24-25
HALL CAINE has written not a little. His work, The Christian, has been widely read, and by having been dramatized, a certain part of the public became familiar with its contents without having perused its pages. The Bondman, however, is a book more vigorously written, and, in my judgment, much more worthy of reading. Its moral tone is higher. Its characters are stronger, and its style more energetic and interesting. It is the story of the two sons of one Stephen Orry. Stephen Orry was a great overgrown Icelander, a Samson in strength; a Saul for beauty; but like those two ancients, on certain sides of his nature, he too was beastly. But the beastly in him, like that in the lion, while destructive of certain men that crossed his path, was tender toward his own children, and beautiful in the self-sacrifices and suffering endured for their sakes.
The elder of these two sons, Jason, was born to Stephens first wife, a woman of sweet face, cultured mind and affectionate heart, Rachel Jorgensen. She was the daughter of Icelands Governor General, who, when she displeased him by her marriage, shut his door against her, and his heart as well. And, although she suffered desertion by her husband, poverty of the deepest sort, distresses unimaginable, and even death from neglect, he never opened either door.
The second son of Stephen Orry was Michael. His mother was a slattern of the Isle of Man. But nature has her freaks, and so it fell out that this first boy Jason was much like his father. In his nature and appearance there was little hint of the sweet mother Rachel, and the second boy, Michael, was equally unlike his mother, and had no touch of his father in his make-up. Sensitive, delicate, naturally refined, moved always by the highest moral sentiment, he came early to be recognized by old Adam Fairbrother (the deputy governor of the Isle of Man), who had adopted him, as a much more beautiful lad than any of the five God had given him, a worthy companion indeed of Adams little daughter Greeba, who was very different from her groveling brothers, and in consequence was old Adams joy and delight.
When Jason was grown to young manhood he saw his deserted mother die the most cruel death, and he determined to be avenged upon his father for having so maltreated one of earths angels, and for that purpose he started for the Isle of Man, whither he learned his father had fled. Near the same time Michael, the half-brother and the younger, left the Isle of Man for Iceland, prompted by the high purpose of searching out his fathers first wife, and by love, sympathy and assistance, righting in a measure her wrongs. These half-brothers never came together until years had passed, and Michael had for a short time been the president of the Free Republic of Iceland, only to see the government overthrown and himself imprisoned at the sulphur mines.
To that same prison Jason was eventually sent by suspicions that had fallen upon him. When first he saw his half-brother, he knew him not, but he saw him a broken, scourged, suffering and dying man. He gave him his sympathy. He watched every opportunity to render him assistance. Eventually he planned and perfected his escape. He pled his cause before the court of Althing. And, when Michael was imprisoned a second time, and eventually ordered executed, Jason effected an entrance to his cell, sent him out on an errand that should end in his freedom, and calmly faced the executioners when they came, taking into his own breast the four bullets intended for Michael.
And now from this meager outline, let me proceed to my sermon. There are four respects at least in which the story of The Bondman parallels great Scripture truths to be found in this seventh chapter of Romans.
THE ELDER BROTHER WAS INJURED
Jason had indeed been wronged. In the hour of his greatest need he was forsaken by those who ought to have been his best friends. When he was born his own father was a fugitive from paternal duties and cares. He had no welcome into the world. His grandfatherthe Governor General of Icelandwas rich, and yet this child never knew even the necessities. Poverty pinched him, neglect oppressed him, and aside from his mothers love, the world had no light for him.
Beloved, has it not occurred to us that our Elder Brother Jesus Christ endured the same? He came unto His own, and His own received Him not (Joh 1:11). When by force of character He had accomplished unto Himself a following, there came a time one day in which He uttered some plain and searching truths, and it is written,
From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him (Joh 6:66).
In the darkest hour His life ever knew there were but three men from whom He hoped for sympathy Peter, James and Johnand these three disappointed Him, every one. They slept while in Gethsemane, when He was sweating drops of blood, and His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death. Truly He trod the wine-press alone. I often think of that Messianic prophecy of Isaiah, He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not (Isa 55:3). And yet, and yet, He was our Elder Brother.
Jason was injured in the second place because his love had wedded another. After his mothers death he never loved another woman save oneGreeba Adam Fairbrothers daughter. She pledged herself to him, and then fled from him to marry Michael instead. Has it never occurred to you that the great grief of Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, is at the same point? This seventh chapter of Romans, the early verses of it, sets forth this fact. Mankind, for whom Christ has ever had such a deep love, has always been wedded to the world. It was so from the day of the fall. You reach but the sixth chapter in Genesis before you read, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose (Gen 6:1-2) Gods own wedding the world! Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1Jn 2:15-16).
The second point at which the story of The Bondman parallels the truth of the Bible is in
THE BONDAGE OF THE YOUNGER
Michaels downfall was accomplished by deception. The five groveling sons of old Adam Fairbrother, never forgetting the jealousies and hatreds entertained against their fathers favorite, followed their sister to Iceland, and by slander and Satanic falsehoods accomplished the destruction of her house, the imprisonment of her husband, and filled his heart with doubts that drove him to despair. It is the same fate that has befallen Christs younger brothers from the first. Not a one of us was ever overthrown without the use of deception, falsehoods, snares. The world is full of people of whom it is rightly written, Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips (Rom 3:13). Many deceivers are entered into the world (2Jn 1:7), And I come more and more to believe that no man is ever dragged down; no man is ever degraded; no man is ever driven to despair without the practice of deception upon the part of Satan, or some of his emissaries.
He may not for a moment imagine it, and yet deceived he is. How many there are who have youth on their side, who have beauty, who have bounding health, and whose concern is about the gaieties of the hour, who are giving themselves with alacrity to the enjoyment of sensuous life, and who are giving little attention to the cultivation of the mind, and still less to the salvation of the soul, but who are seeking to satisfy every physical desire? Ah, beloved, such are deceived. Such are set for a downfall.
Henry Ward Beecher speaks of those who so spend their youths as like a party entering the Mammoth Cave with candles enough, if sparingly used, to carry them forward and bring them back, but setting them all on fire at once, not heeding the warning of the guide, dancing and wandering on until they are many and many a mile from the mouth of the cave, when one light after another begins to flicker and burn low and go out. Now alarmed, they with haste turn back; one candle burns out and then another; a dim twilight begins to surround them and then darkness comes on, yet they are miles from the exit. They grope about with outcries to each other; some, wandering wide, plunge down chasms; some give up and lie down in despair. It is so in life. The men who are deceived in youth into squandering their time, selling out cheaply their energies, drinking deeply from the cup of sensuous pleasures, ah, these are the men who will come into the dungeon, into darkness. Oh, younger brothers, let me warn you against the deception of the enemy!
When once a man is degraded, the enemy seems to turn him over into the hands of his fellows for further degradation. When Jorgen Jorgenson came back to his own place of power, and overturning the new Republic, imprisoned Michael Sunlocks, he was not content to have put him down merely; he was not content to imprison him merely. His keepers had their orders; they imposed the heaviest tasks upon him; they beat him while he was doing his best. When he was sick, his ebbing energies had to respond to the scourge of their whip, and if he lifted a hand in defense, he had to pay the penalty by seeing that hand transfixed with a nail which bound it to the wall in indescribable suffering. And when he was so far exhausted that he could not carry himself to work, they chained him to Jason, the giant, and compelled him to drag the dying man to the place of drudgery.
It has long seemed to me that if Satan can once bring a man down, once degrade a man, once fill a mans heart with despair, once deceive a man, and persuade him to do his evil bidding, that then he can turn him over to evil fellows and feel quite confident that they will finish the dreadful work. Have you not known a man who a few years ago was young and strong and beautiful, a man whose conduct was exemplary and whose character was high grade? When first he was tempted, he resisted mightily. Many a trap set for his destruction he discovered and escaped. But Satan went on snaring for him until one night, in an unwary moment, he took the winecup and emptied it. A second followed. This first fall had its successors! Yielding grew into a habit, and by and by that man, once so strong that Satan with all of his emissaries, required years for a single victory over him, is now so weak and foolish that any one of his fellows can add to his destruction by simply saying, Come in with me and drink.
I know men and you do who are not bad at heart, whose purposes are pure enough, whose resolutions for good are often formed, but they are conquered men. Like Samson, they are in the power of the enemy; like him also, their eyes have been put out, as were Michael Sunlocks, and they are made to grind for the Philistines. Any man that wants to can make them grind for him. They get up in the morning saying, I will do right today; they get up in the morning saying, I will be strong today; they get up in the morning saying, Satan will have no victory today, and before the gray has left the dawn, or the dew has risen to vapor, they are victims. Some of their fellows have found them; some of their tempters have come upon them, and they have no powers of resistance. They are slaves! Their own wills they cannot do. But the will of the Evil One, that they do easily. That is what Paul is talking about in this seventh chapter of Romans, and as he thinks upon it, thinks upon the good that he purposed to do and yet did it not, thinks upon the evil that he purposed not to do, and yet did it; all because he was carnal and sold under sin, he cries out in agony, 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And that is the cry of the conquered soul the world around.
The third respect in which this story of The Bondman parallels a great spiritual truth is that
SUFFERING BEGETS SYMPATHY
Strange to say, this sympathy comes from the injured one. Jason, the elder brother, who had been injured by the fact that his own father had given the love that was due him to his illegitimate son, injured in that Michael had taken away from him his love, heJasonthe injured one, has brought to those around him the sweetest sympathy.
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (Isa 53:4-5).
Oh, I like to think of the sympathy of Jesus Christ. I like to remember that my sufferings make appeal to Him; make such an appeal that He forgets my sin, and in His great love, responds.
It is told that Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, was worn out one day with his labor. When he retired to sleep he said to the attendant, I am so exhausted, I must sleep. I must sleep. If I do not sleep, I shall die. No matter who comes, therefore, waken me not, I must sleep. He went into his tent, and his faithful servant was on the watch. But no sooner had Xavier laid down, than, seeing the palid face of a child approaching the door, he beckoned to his servant and said, I made a mistake. I made a mistake. If a sick and sorrowing child comes, waken me.
Beloved,
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:15-16).
Jasons sympathy for Michael expressed itself in practical assistance. For days together in the prison he watched the weak sick boy to see wherein he could help. Our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, is always watching to the same end, and is always willing to suffer Himself that our sorrows might be lightened, and our too heavy loads might be lifted.
Do you recall the story of that Moravian missionary who went to the West Indian Islands to preach the Gospel to the slaves? When these slaves came home at night, they were so exhausted by the burdens of the day and the brutality of their masters, that they could not listen to his message, but crawling to their pallets of straw, gnawed their crusts until sleep partially relieved their sufferings. At the break of day the bell and whip awakened them and drove them afield again. Seeing this, the white missionary went and sold himself to their master, and permitted himself to be chained with the gang to go forth with them. So, as he worked with them by day, he talked the Gospel to them. And, as he suffered with them both day and night, his words took hold on their hearts, and hope sprang up in many a despairing bosom.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same * *
For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted,
He is able to succour them that are tempted (Heb 2:14; Heb 2:16-18).
This sympathy planned a way of escape. One day Jason, having endured to the last point of patience, laid his guards low, and throwing the weak, dying Michael across his shoulder, walked away. Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, has planned for every suffering soul a way of escape.
The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luk 19:10).
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation (Heb 2:1-3 a)?
The fourth lesson which I bring from the Bondman, is in my judgment the most important of them all; namely,
SALVATION CAME BY SUBSTITUTION
From the day when Jason saw Michael in prison, and was moved by his pitiable, suffering estate, to the day when he set him free once for all, it was by substitution.
For Michaels weakness he substituted his strength. The younger brother was reduced to such a state that had his guards offered him his freedom, he could not have possessed himself of it. He was too weak to walk and would have died on the very spot where they left him. But what he could not accomplish for himself, Jason perfected for him. He laid him tenderly across his giants shoulders and strode away. Strength for weakness!
Charles Spurgeon tells how his brother James was at Croydon Hospital one night as a visitor. He was late in leaving and all the porters had retired, leaving him and a physician as the only men in the institution, awake. A boy came running in saying that there had been a railway accident and that they needed a stretcher at the station. The doctor and James Spurgeon responded. Presently they came carrying back to the hospital the wounded man, and for the next week or two James Spurgeon often visited this fellow, and he explained his special interest in him by saying, I helped to carry him. Charles remarked, I believe James will always take interest in that man because he once felt the weight of him. Ah, beloved, read the parable of the lost sheep and realize that it is a figure of the lost sinner, and that the shepherd who lays him over his shoulder and bears the sick one back to the fold, is none other than the Saviour. He has felt the weight of us, and while doing it was substituting his strength for our weakness.
Again, there was substitution by mediatorship. When Jason carried Michael from prison, he never stopped until he had reached the Mount of Laws. Once there, Michael, unconscious, was unable to plead his case before the judges of Althing, and Jason pled it for him. And what a plea! When the judge said, Dont you know the man youve brought here? Jason cried, Noyesyes, my brothermy brother in sufferingmy brother in miserythats all I know or care. * * And I have heard that if any one is wronged and oppressed and unjustly punished, let him but find his way to this place, and though he be the meanest slave that wipes his forehead, yet he will be a man among you all * *. Then, Judges of Iceland, fellow-men and brothers, do you ask why I have brought this man to this place? Look at this bleeding hand! It has been pierced with a nail. Look at these poor eyes, they are blind! Do you know what that means? Then, Judges of Iceland, I call on you to save this man, for He that dwells above is looking down on you.
But more eloquent than the words of Jason was his suffering face, and as the judges looked upon that, Caine says there was but one voice in all that great assembly, and it was a mighty shout that seemed to rend the dome of the heavy sky, Free! Free! Free!
The story is told that Aeschylus was once condemned by the Athenians. When they were about ready to execute him, his brother Amyntas, a brave warrior, who had just gained a great victory for the Athenians, came into the court. And without uttering a word, he held up the bleeding stub of an arm which had been severed in the last battle. As the judges looked upon that they said, For the sake of Amyntas, Aeschylus is adjudged innocent and set free.
When I turn my eyes toward heaven, and remember that the God who sitteth upon His throne has condemned me, I would be in utter despair of clemency did I overlook Him, who, standing at the right hand of God, is pleading for me. Jesus is holding before the Father a wounded hand, is presenting His pierced feet, is letting His pierced side be looked upon.
Five bleeding wounds He bears,Received on Calvary;They pour effectual prayers,They strongly plead for me:Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,Nor let that ransomed sinner die!
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus? (1Ti 2:5).
And above all, substitution by standing in his condemned brothers stead. The ever watchful enemy, Jorgen Jorgenson, through his minions, sent Michael to a second prison, located on a lonely island, and set a priest to guard him. Learning that he was improving, he was filled with fear of him, and determined upon his death and dispatched four sailors, armed with muskets, to do that dreadful work. But Jason reached the cell ahead of them, secured from the priest the privilege of playing bondman for Michael while he went on a visit to old Adam Fairbrother, the father-in-law. Jason knew that death was determined for that day, and that Michaels bondman would take into his own bosom the lead meant for another, and when the morning dawned clear and cold, Jason responded to the call of the sailors, and Caine says, He took up his stand and folded his arms behind him. As he did so, the sun broke through the clouds and lit up his uplifted face. The sailors fired and he fell. He took their shots into his heart, the biggest heart for good or ill that ever beat in the breast of man.
But Caine was wrong. The biggest heart for good that ever beat in the breast of man, on Calvary received into itself the point of the Roman spear, and poured out its blood in demonstration of the doctrine of substitution. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (1Pe 3:18). Come!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(24) So this intestine struggle goes on unceasingly and reaches no decision, till at last the unhappy man cries out, almost in despair, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who, that is, will help me to overcome these fleshly desires, gendered by a corrupt human nature, which are dragging me down to imminent destruction? The body is the cause of sin, and therefore of death. If only it could be released from that, the distracted soul would be at rest and free.
The body of this death.Thu body (the slave of sin and therefore the abode) of death. The words are a cry for deliverance from the whole of this mortal nature, in which carnal appetite and sin and death are inextricably mingled. To complete this deliverance the triple resurrectionethical, spiritual, and physicalis needed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Oh wretched I Down to even this despairing cry, and in it, the duplication of the self appears in the I and the body of this death. The I makes a convulsive effort to fling off this body at once of sin and of death, yet feels the impossibility without help from without. For this body of death is myself!
This death When we interpret the body of this death to be the old man, the carnal self, the noisome carcass of indwelling sin producing this death, we bring out the completion and final point of the answer to the question at Rom 7:13. It was not the law that produced the death herein depicted, but sin.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deliverance Is At Hand (7:24-8:2).
‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?’
The thought that he has not wholly and continually been able to overcome sin caused Paul great anguish so that he cries out in his wretchedness. His very recording of the facts had awoken in his memory a great sense of how dreadful it had been. And so he cries out, ‘Oh wretched man that I am!’ He is ashamed of what he has had to confess. If anything reveals that Paul is speaking from personal experience it is this. And like what has gone before it is expressed in the present tense and in the singular. This is what he knows himself still to be when he ceases to let the mind of the Spirit have precedence.
He could still hardly believe that after all these years of serving Christ, and with all that he owed to Christ, he should still allow his members sometimes to do what they should not. We do not know of course what his temptations were. Perhaps he was aware of sexual stirrings within him that he was finding hard to control, perhaps it was the battle not to allow his prominence to make him proud and a little arrogant, possibly it was a tendency to slacken off a little in his physical exertions because of his physical problems, perhaps it was a tendency sometimes to be a little harsh and lacking in understanding for the weakness of others. But it is clear that they were there. They were not what the world would call gross sins, but they were gross sins to him. And he hated them. And so he cried out, ‘Wretched man that I am! who will deliver me out of the body of this death?’
Some have argued that the Christian would not speak with such despair. But they must be privileged. I have myself often at times cried out in precisely such despair because I felt that I was losing the war when I found that sin had somehow been exercising its mastery over me and I felt totally ashamed and aggrieved that I was not pleasing my Lord. And Paul’s words have then been echoed in my prayer. It is precisely the awakened and tender conscience of the Christian who loves and wants to please God which feels the impact of sin so deeply.
And Paul then draws attention to how much he wants deliverance from it. ‘Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?’ He hates what is in him which has caused this situation. ‘The body of this death’ signifies the body as controlled by indwelling sin which causes it to be sentenced to death. It is the body under sentence of death. Within it is ‘the flesh’. It is dying because of the presence of sin, and meanwhile causing him great pangs of anguish. And all men die, even the most godly. (The exception at the coming of Christ is precisely that, an exception. For them death is overridden by the grace of God through the cross).
He knows, of course the answer to his own question. (Like many of Paul’s questions it is postulated in order to establish a point). Indeed that will be his message in chapter 8. Deliverance will come initially through the work of the Spirit in his daily life and finally as a result of the work of the Spirit through the resurrection or final transformation. He knows that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2), a freedom which will eventually be fully realised at the resurrection (Rom 8:9-11). He knows that one day we will be delivered by the transformation of our present bodies (1Co 15:42-44; 1Co 15:52-53). That one day we will be presented before God holy and without blemish (Eph 5:27; Col 1:22). But here he wants the answer to be made clear immediately. He wants to reveal the source of our deliverance. We should note that his question simply awakens the question in the mind of his hearers in a vivid way. He is not really seeking the information. He is using literary method. And the answer is ‘Jesus Christ our LORD’. For some of us this is precisely the answer that we were expecting. But in Paul’s day it was spoken to people who lived in a world of many gods, and came as an illumination out of the darkness. It was the Christian Lord and Saviour Who could deliver men from sin.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 7:24. Who shall deliver me? &c. It has been thought by some, that in this phrase there is an allusion to a cruelty, which is said to have been practised by some tyrants, on miserable captives who fell into their hands; and whom they compelled to drag along with them, wherever they went, a dead carcase fastened to their bodies.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 7:24 . The marks of parenthesis in which many include Rom 7:24-25 , down to , or (Grotius and Flatt) merely Rom 7:25 down to , should be expunged, since the flow of the discourse is not once logically interrupted.
. . .] The oppressive feeling of the misery of that captivity finds utterance thus. Here also Paul by his “I” represents the still unredeemed man in his relation to the law. Only with the state of the latter , not with the consciousness of the regenerate man, as if he “as it were” were crying ever afresh for a new Redeemer from the power of the sin still remaining in him (Philippi), does this wail and cry for help accord. The regenerate man has that which is here sighed for, and his mood is that which is opposite to the feeling of wretchedness and death, Rom 5:1 ff., Rom 8:1 ff.; being that of freedom, of overcoming, of life in Christ, and of Christ in him, of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, of the new creature, to which old things have passed away. Comp. Jul. Mller, v. d. Snde , I. p. 458 f., Exo 5 . The objection of Reiche, that Paul would, according to this view, speak of himself while he was thinking of men of quite an opposite frame of mind, is not valid; for that longing, which he himself had certainly felt very deeply in his pre-Christian life, and into whose painful feelings he transports himself back all the more vividly from the standpoint of his blissful state of redemption , could not but , in the consistent continuation of the idiosis , be here individualized and realized as present through his . And this he could do the more unhesitatingly, since no doubt could thereby be raised in the minds of his readers regarding his present freedom from the over which he sighs. Reiche himself, curiously enough, regards Rom 7:24 as the cry for help of Jewish humanity, to which “a redeemed one replies” in Rom 8:1 ; Rom 7:25 , standing in the way, being a gloss!
. .] Nominative of exclamation: O wretched man that I am! See Khner, II. 1, p. 41; Winer, p. 172 [E. T. 228].
., Rev 3:17 , very frequent in the tragedians: Plat. Euthyd . p. 302 B; Dem. 548. 12, 425. 11.
] Purely future. In the depth of his misery the longing after a deliverer asks as if in despair: who will it be?
. ] might indeed grammatically be joined to (Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Estius, and many others, including Olshausen, Philippi, Hofmann, and Th. Schott), since one may say, . . ; but the sense is against it. For that which weighs upon him, namely, the being dependent on the body as captive of the law of sin, lies in the fact that the body belongs to this death, i.e. to the death incurred by sin (which is not physical, but eternal death, comp. Rom 7:10 ff.), consequently to this shameful death, as its seat; not in the fact that this relation takes place in the present body, or in a present time posited with the quality of the earthly body. If the words of the person who exclaims should amount to no more than “ the hopeless wish to get rid of the body, in which he is compelled to live ,” without expressing, however, the desire to be dead (Hofmann), they would yield a very confused conception. Moreover, by postponing the pronoun, Paul would only have expressed himself very unintelligibly, had his meaning been hoc corpus mortis , and not corpus mortis hujus (Vulgate). Comp. Act 5:20 ; Act 13:26 . The correct explanation therefore is: “ Who shall deliver me, so that I be no longer dependent on the body, which serves as the seat of so shameful a death? ” or, in other words: “ Who shall deliver me out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve as the seat of this shameful death? ” Comp. Rom 8:9 , Rom 6:6 , Rom 7:5 ; Rom 7:10 ff.; Col 2:11 . With what vivid and true plastic skill does the deeply-stirred emotion of the apostle convey this meaning! underneath which, no doubt, there likewise lies the longing “after a release from the sinful natural life” (Th. Schott). In detail, corresponds with the . . in Rom 7:23 ; . with the in Rom 7:23 ; and denotes the death as occasioned by the tragic power of sin just described also in Rom 7:23 ; the genitive relation is the same as in Rom 6:6 . The rendering “ mortal body ” is condemned by the close connection of with , whether (inconsistently enough with the context, see Rom 7:23 ; Rom 7:25 ; Rom 8:1-2 ) there be discovered in the words the longing for death (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Erasmus, Pareus, Estius, Clericus, Balduin, Koppe, and others), or, with Olshausen (introducing what is foreign to the argument), the longing “only to be redeemed from the mortal body, i.e. from the body that through sin has become liable to perish, so that the Spirit may make it alive .” Finally, as in Rom 6:6 , so also here, those explanations are to be rejected which, in arbitrary and bold deviation from the Pauline usage, take not of the human body, but as “mortifera peccati massa” (Calvin, Cappel, Homberg, Wolf); or: “the system of sensual propensities ( ), which is the cause of death” (Flatt); or: “death conceived as a monster with a body, that threatens to devour the ” (Reiche).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1855
PAULS SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS
Rom 7:24-25. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
THE Epistle to the Romans, as a clear, full, argumentative, and convincing statement of the Gospel salvation, far exceeds every other part of Holy Writ. And the seventh chapter of that epistle equally excels every other part of Scripture, as a complete delineation of Christian experience. The Psalms contain the breathings of a devout soul, both in seasons of trouble and under the impressions of joy. But in the passage before us the Apostle states the operation of the two principles which were within him, and shews how divine grace and his corrupt nature counteracted each other. The good principle did indeed liberate him from all allowed subjection to sin: but the corrupt principle within him yet exerted such power, that, in spite of all his endeavours to resist it, he could not utterly overcome it. Having opened thus all the secret motions of his heart, he gives vent to the feelings which had been alternately excited by a review of his own experience, and of the provision which was made for him in Jesus Christ.
In discoursing upon his words we shall shew,
I.
The Apostles experience
We shall not enter into the general contents of this chapter, but confine ourselves to the workings of the Apostles mind, in,
1.
His views of his sin
[He considered sin as the most lothesome of all objects. In calling his indwelling corruption a body of death, he seems to allude to the practice of some tyrants, who fastened a dead body to a captive whom they had doomed to death, and compelled him to bear it about with him till he was killed by the offensive smell. Such a nauseous and hateful thing was sin in the Apostles estimation. He felt that he could not get loose from it, but was constrained to bear it about with him where-ever he went: and it was more lothesome to him than a dead body, more intolerable than a putrid carcass.
The bearing of this about with him was an occasion of the deepest sorrow. Whatever other tribulations he was called to endure, he could rejoice and glory in them, yea, and thank God who had counted him worthy to bear them. But under the burthen of his indwelling corruptions he cried, O wretched man that I am!
Nor was there any thing he so much desired as to be delivered from it. When he had been unjustly imprisoned by the magistrates, he was in no haste to get rid of his confinement: instead of availing himself of the discharge they had sent him, he said, Nay, but let them come themselves and fetch me out. But from his indwelling sin he was impatient to be released; and cried, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Not that he was at a loss where to look for deliverance; but he spake as one impatient to obtain it.]
2.
His views of his Saviour
[If his afflictions abounded, so did his consolations abound also. He knew that there was a sufficiency in Christ both of merit to justify the guilty, and of grace to sanctify the polluted. He knew, moreover, that God for Christs sake had engaged to pardon all his sins, and to subdue all his iniquities. Hence, with an emotion of gratitude, more easy to be conceived than expressed, he breaks off from his desponding strains, and exclaims, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; I thank him for Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour; and I thank him through Christ, as my all-prevailing Advocate and Mediator. While he saw in himself nothing but what tended to humble him in the dust, he beheld in Christ and in God as reconciled to him through Christ, enough to turn his sorrow into joy, and his desponding complaints into triumphant exultation.]
That we may not imagine these things to be peculiar to St. Paul, we proceed to shew,
II.
Wherein our experience must resemble his
As face answers to face in a glass, so doth the heart of man to man: and every one who is con verted to God will resemble the Apostle,
1.
In an utter abhorrence of all sin
[Sin is really hateful to all who see it in its true colours; it is properly called, filthiness of the flesh and spirit [Note: 2Co 7:1.]: and all who feel its workings within them, will lothe both it, and themselves on account of it, notwithstanding God is pacified towards them [Note: Eze 16:63.]. Ungodly men may indeed hate sin in others; as Judah did, when he sentenced his daughter Tamar to death for the crime in which he himself had borne a share [Note: Gen 38:24-26.]; and as David did, when he condemned a man to die for an act, which was but a very faint shadow of the enormities which he himself had committed [Note: 2Sa 12:5-7.]. Ungodly men may go so far as to hate sin in themselves, as Judas did when he confessed it with so much bitterness and anguish of spirit; and as a woman may who has brought herself to shame; or a gamester, who has reduced his family to ruin. But it is not sin that they hate, so much as the consequences of their sin. The true Christian is distinguished from all such persons in that he hates sin itself, independent of any shame or loss he may sustain by means of it in this world, or any punishment he may suffer in the world to come. The Apostle did not refer to any act that had exposed him to shame before men, or that had destroyed his hopes of acceptance with God, but to the inward corruption of which he could not altogether divest himself: and every one that is upright before God will resemble him in this respect, and hold in abhorrence those remains of depravity which he cannot wholly extirpate.
Nor will the true Christian justify himself from the consideration that he cannot put off his corrupt nature: no; he will grieve from his inmost soul that he is so depraved a creature. When he sees how defective he is in every grace, how weak his faith, how faint his hope, how cold his love; when he sees that the seeds of pride and envy, of anger and resentment, of worldliness and sensuality, yet abide in his heart; he weeps over his wretched state, and groans in this tabernacle, being burthened. Not that this grief arises from fear of perishing, but simply from the consideration that these corruptions defile his soul, and displease his God, and rob him of that sweet fellowship with the Deity, which, if he were more purified from them, it would be his privilege to enjoy.
Under these impressions he will desire a deliverance from sin as much as from hell itself: not like a merchant who casts his goods out of his ship merely to keep it from sinking, and wishes for them again as soon as he is safe on shore; but like one racked with pain and agony by reason of an abscess, who not only parts with the corrupt matter with gladness, but beholds it afterwards with horror and disgust, and accounts its separation from him as his truest felicity.
Let every one then examine himself with respect to these things, and ask himself distinctly, Am I like Paul in lothing sin of every kind, and of every degree? Does my grief for the secret remains of sin within me swallow up every other grief? And am I using every means in my power, and especially calling upon God, to destroy sin root and branch?]
2.
In a thankful reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ
[The hope of every true Christian arises from Christ alone: if he had no other prospect than what he derived from his own inherent goodness, he would despair as much as those who are gone beyond a possibility of redemption. But there is in Christ such a fulness of all spiritual blessings treasured up for his people, that the most guilty cannot doubt of pardon, nor can the weakest doubt of victory, provided he rely on that adorable Saviour, and seek his blessings with penitence and contrition. In him the Apostle found an abundance to supply his want; and from the same inexhaustible fountain does every saint draw water with joy.
And what must be the feelings of the Christian when he is enabled to say of Christ, This is my friend, this is my beloved? Must he not immediately exclaim, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift! Must not the very stones cry out against him, if he withhold his acclamations and hosannas? Yes; to every one that believes, Christ is, and must be, precious. All that are of the true circumcision will rejoice in him, having no confidence in the flesh. And the deeper sense any man has of his own extreme vileness, the more fervently will he express his gratitude to God for providing a Saviour so suited to his necessities.]
Let us then learn from this subject,
1.
The nature of vital godliness
[Religion, as it is experienced in the soul, is not as some imagine, a state of continual sorrow, nor, as others fondly hope, a state of uninterrupted joy. It is rather a mixture of joy and sorrow, or, if we may so speak, it is a joy springing out of sorrow. It is a conflict between the fleshly and spiritual principle [Note: Gal 5:17.], continually humbling us on account of what is in ourselves, and filling us with joy on account of what is in Christ Jesus. As for those who dream of sinless perfection, I marvel at them. Let them explain their notions as they will, they put away from themselves one-half of the Apostles experience, and suffer incalculable loss, in exchanging true scriptural humility for Pharisaic pride, and unscriptural self-complacency. The being emptied of all our own imaginary goodness, and being made truly thankful to God for the blessings we receive in and through Christ, is that which constitutes the Christian warfare, and that which alone will issue in final victory.]
2.
How little true religion there is in the world
[We hear every living man complaining at times of troubles, civil, domestic, or personal: and we find every man at times exhilarated on some occasion or other. But we might live years with the generality of men, and never once hear them crying, O my inward corruptions: what a burthen they are to my distressed soul! Nor should we see them ever once rejoicing in Christ as their suitable and all-sufficient Saviour. Yea, if we were only to suggest such a thought to them, they would turn away from us in disgust. Can we need any further proof of the prevalence, the general prevalence, of irreligion? May God make use of this indisputable fact for the bringing home of conviction upon all our souls!]
3.
What consolation is provided for them who have ever so small a portion of true religion in their hearts
[Many experience the sorrows of religion without its joys; and they refuse to be comforted because of the ground they have for weeping and lamentation. But if their sins are a just occasion of sorrow, their sorrow on account of sin is a just occasion of joy: and the more they cry, O wretched man that I am, the more reason they have to add, Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. Let this ascription of praise be our alternate effusion now; and ere long it shall be our only, and uninterrupted, song for ever.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Ver. 24. O wretched man ] We must discontentedly be contented to be exercised with sin while we are here. It is so bred in the bone, that till our bones, as Joseph’s, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not leave. The Romans so conquered Chosroes the Persian, that he made a law, that never any king of Persia should make war against the Romans. (Evagrius.) But let us do what we can to subdue sin, it will be a Jebusite, a false borderer, yea, a rank traitor, rebelling against the Spirit. Only this we may take for a comfortable sign of future victory, when we are discontent with our present ill estate, grace will get the upper hand; as nature doth, when the humours are disturbed, and after many fit. And as till then there is no rest to the body, so neither is there to the soul. The conflict between flesh and spirit is as when two opposite things meet together (cold saltpetre and hot brimstone), they make a great noise. So doth Paul here, Miserable me, &c. Basil fitly compareth him to a man thrown off his horse, and dragged after him crying out for help. Another, to one that is troubled with a disease called the mare, or Ephialtes; which (in his slumber) maketh him think that he feels a thing as big as a mountain lying on his breast, which he can no way remove, but would fain be rid of.
Who shall deliver me ] Nothing cleaves more pertinaciously, or is more inexpugnable, than a strong lust.
From this body of death ] Or, this dead body, by a Hebraism, this carcase of sin to which I am tied and long held, as noisome every whit to my soul as a dead body to my senses; and as burdensome as a withered arm or mortified limb, which hangs on a man as a lump of lead. Some remnants of sin God hath left in us, to clear to us his justifying grace by Christ’s righteousness. This the apostle falls admiring,Rom 8:1Rom 8:1 ; “Now then there is no condemnation,” &c.; as I might well have expected, being carried captive to the law of sin. Herein also Christ deals as some conquerors, who had taken their enemies prisoners, but yet killed them not immediately, till the day of triumph came. This will keep the saints nothing in their own eyes, even when they are filled brimfull with grace and glory in another world.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 .] The division of the man against himself, his inward conflict, and miserable state of captivity to sin in the flesh, while with the mind he loves and serves the law of God. From this wretched condition, which is a very death in life, who shall deliver him ? cannot well be figurative, ‘ universitas vitiorum ,’ or ‘ mortifera peccati massa ,’ but must, on account of the part which and have hitherto borne, be literal . Then how is to be taken ? Some (Syr., Erasm., Calv., Beza, Olsh., Winer) join it with , and (not Winer) justify the construction as a Hebraism: but Winer has refuted the notion (edn. 6, 34. 3. b) of a Hebraism, and the arrangement has no Greek example. It can only be joined with ; and that most fitly, as the state which he has been describing is referred to by . Then the body of this death will mean, ‘the body whose subjection to the law of sin brings about this state of misery,’ compare , ch. Rom 6:6 . From this body, as the instrument whereby he is led captive to the law of sin and death, he cries out for deliverance: i. e to be set free , as ch. Rom 8:2 , from the law of sin and death .
Some Commentators, misled by the notion of a Hendiadys ( . = ), a most fruitful source of error in exegesis, have imagined that the verse implies a wish to be delivered from the body (by death), and expresses a weariness of life .
The cry is uttered, as De Wette well observes, in full consciousness of the deliverance which Christ has effected , and as leading to the expression of thanks which follows. And so, and no otherwise, is it to be taken.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 7:24 . ; “a wail of anguish and a cry for help”. The words are not those of the Apostle’s heart as he writes; they are the words which he knows are wrung from the heart of the man who realises that he is himself in the state just described. Paul has reproduced this vividly from his own experience, but is not the cry of the Christian Paul, but of the man whom sin and law have brought to despair. : “ This death” is the death of which man is acutely conscious in the condition described: it is the same as the death of Rom 7:9 , but intensely realised through the experience of captivity to sin. “The body of this death” is therefore the same as “the body of sin” in chap. Rom 6:6 : it is the body which, as the instrument if not the seat of sin, is involved in its doom. Salvation must include deliverance from the body so far as the body has this character and destiny.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
O. Omit. This exclamation is an instance of Figure of speech Ecphonesis. App-6.
wretched. Greek. talaiporos. Only here and Rev 3:17. Compare talaiporia, misery, Rom 3:16. Jam 5:1; and the verb talaiporeo, only in Jam 4:9.
deliver = rescue. See first Occurance Mat 6:13. Greek. rhuomai.
the body of this death. The body of sin. Compare Rom 7:13; Rom 6:6; Rom 8:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] The division of the man against himself,-his inward conflict, and miserable state of captivity to sin in the flesh, while with the mind he loves and serves the law of God. From this wretched condition, which is a very death in life, who shall deliver him? cannot well be figurative, universitas vitiorum, or mortifera peccati massa, but must, on account of the part which and have hitherto borne, be literal. Then how is to be taken? Some (Syr., Erasm., Calv., Beza, Olsh., Winer) join it with , and (not Winer) justify the construction as a Hebraism: but Winer has refuted the notion (edn. 6, 34. 3. b) of a Hebraism, and the arrangement has no Greek example. It can only be joined with ;-and that most fitly, as the state which he has been describing is referred to by . Then the body of this death will mean, the body whose subjection to the law of sin brings about this state of misery, compare , ch. Rom 6:6. From this body, as the instrument whereby he is led captive to the law of sin and death, he cries out for deliverance: i. e to be set free, as ch. Rom 8:2, from the law of sin and death.
Some Commentators, misled by the notion of a Hendiadys ( . = ), a most fruitful source of error in exegesis, have imagined that the verse implies a wish to be delivered from the body (by death), and expresses a weariness of life.
The cry is uttered, as De Wette well observes, in full consciousness of the deliverance which Christ has effected, and as leading to the expression of thanks which follows. And so, and no otherwise, is it to be taken.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 7:24. ) [O wretched man that I am! Engl. Vers. But Beng.] wretched me, who am [inasmuch as I am] a man! Man, if he were without sin, is noble as well as blessed; with sin, he rather wishes not to be a man at all, than to be such a man as man actually is: The man [whom Paul personifies] speaks of the state of man in itself, as it is by nature. This cry for help is the last thing in the struggle, and, after that henceforth convinced, that he has no help in himself, he begins, so to speak, unknowingly to pray, who shall deliver me? and he seeks deliverance and waits, until God shows Himself openly in Christ, in answer to that who. This marks the very moment of mystical death.[80] Believers to a certain extent continue to carry with them something of this feeling even to the day of their death,[81] Rom 8:23.-, shall deliver) Force is necessary. The verb is properly used; for , is, (to drag from DEATH), Ammonius from Aristoxenus.-) from.- , from the body of death) the body being dead on account of sin, ch. Rom 8:10. The death of the body is the full carrying into execution of that death, of which Rom 7:13 treats, and yet in death there is to be deliverance.-) is said for , the body of this death, for, this body of death.-Comp. Act 5:20, note.
[80] The becoming figuratively dead in a spiritual sense to the law and to sin, ver. 4.-ED.
[81] This longing for deliverance from the body of this death.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 7:24
Rom 7:24
Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?-This subjection of the spirit to the law of sin in the flesh brought the whole man to ruin. [Throughout this paragraph the deliverer has been kept out of view, that his presence, as absolutely indispensable to the life and happiness of the believer, may be realized. The need of being in Christ and under grace, in contrast with being under a purely legal system, has been shown in the development of the argument in these words: For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. (Rom 7:5-6). Here the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, which answers to captivity and wretched, called the body of this death. Under grace is a state in which we are discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. Think, then, of one as being left with all his imperfections under the law, without grace, yearning to do good, but learning finally that the good is beyond his reach. There would be wrung from him the cry for deliverance from his wretchedness. This is the point to which Paul has been leading the argument. Experience shows that the law leaves man, no matter how earnest to keep it, in a state of miserable slavery and wretchedness.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
from the body
Or, out of this body of death. Rom 8:11; 1Co 15:51; 1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:14-17.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
wretched: Rom 8:26, 1Ki 8:38, Psa 6:6, Psa 32:3, Psa 32:4, Psa 38:2, Psa 38:8-10, Psa 77:3-9, Psa 119:20, Psa 119:81-83, Psa 119:131, Psa 119:143, Psa 119:176, Psa 130:1-3, Eze 9:4, Mat 5:4, Mat 5:6, 2Co 12:7-9, Rev 21:4
who: Deu 22:26, Deu 22:27, Psa 71:11, Psa 72:12, Psa 91:14, Psa 91:15, Psa 102:20, Mic 7:19, Zec 9:11, Zec 9:12, Luk 4:18, 2Co 1:8-10, 2Ti 4:18, Tit 2:14, Heb 2:15
the body of this: or, this body of, Rom 6:6, Rom 8:13, Psa 88:5, Col 2:11
Reciprocal: Psa 73:2 – feet Psa 97:10 – hate Psa 119:40 – I have Psa 119:133 – let not Isa 64:6 – are all Jer 34:14 – been sold Rom 6:12 – Let not Rom 7:14 – sold Rom 8:23 – even we Rom 14:22 – Happy 2Co 5:2 – we Gal 3:24 – the law Rev 3:17 – wretched
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:24
Rom 7:24. Roman convicts were sometimes chained to a dead body as a means of punishment. Paul likens the carnal man whose tendencies lead to spiritual death, to the dead body thus chained to the inner man. Only the proper officer can release a convict from the chain, and Paul asks who can release one from the control of the fleshly man.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 7:24. O wretched man that I am! Some would inclose this verse and the first clause of Rom 7:25 in parenthesis; but this is unnecessary. The word wretched implies exhausted by hard labor; comp. Mat 11:28. The prominent ideas are of helplessness and wretchedness; the cry for deliverance follows. A believer may thus speak, doubtless often does; but this condition is precisely that from which we are delivered.
Who shall deliver me. Not merely a wish: would that I were delivered, but rather: who will deliver me, who can do it; not without a reference to help from a person. Those who apply the passage to the regenerate must assume here a temporary absence of relief. It does apply to the regenerate man, when by seeking sanctification by the law he forgets Christ, and deprives himself of the help of the Spirit.
From, lit, out of, the body of this death, or, this body of death. The interpretations are quite various: 1. This body of death; (a) this mortal body. But this makes the body the seat of sin, or amounts to a desire for death; both of which are unpauline and contrary to the context, (b) Still less satisfactory is the view that personifies death as a monster with a body. 2. The body of this death. This is preferable, since the emphasis in the original seems to rest upon this death. There is, however, no reference to physical death, but to the whole condition of helplessness, guilt, and misery just described, which is, in effect, spiritual death. But body may be taken either: (a) literally, or (b) figuratively. The literal sense suggests that the body is the seat of sin, and may be made equivalent to a desire for death. Meyer guards it thus: Who shall deliver me out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve as the seat of this shameful death. This agrees with the reference to members in Rom 7:23. But the figurative sense has more to recommend it Body is the organism of this death; it clings to me as closely as the body. We thus avoid on the one hand making this a desire for death, and on the other giving to body that ethical sense which is peculiar to flesh. The ethical idea is in this death not in body. A turning point is now reached. It is probable that even this cry is uttered in full consciousness of the deliverance which Christ has effected, and as leading to the expression of thanks which follows (Alford, following De Wette).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
These words are a sad and sorrowful complaint of the present and too great prevalency of indwelliung sin and unsubdued corruption; and in them observe,
1. The person complaining, St. Paul.
2. The matter of the complaint, not of affliction, but of sin; not of a death, but of a body of sin and death, which he carried about with him.
3. The manner of the complaint, ’tis with vehemence and affection, it is vox anhelantis, the voice of one that pants and breaths after deliverance; not of one that doubted, much less desponded of a deliverer and a deliverance.
As if the apostle had said, “Oh how am I tired and wearied with continual conflicts and strivings with indwelling sin? How do the remains of unsubdued sin, and (as yet) unmortified corruption, affect and afflict me? who will deliver me? and when shall deliverance be enjoyed by me?”
Learn hence, That there are sad remains of indwelling sin, and unsubdued corruption, in the very best and holiest of God’s children and servants in this life, which they sadly complain of, sensibly groan under, daily watch against, continually conflict with, and shall, in God’s time, be fully and finally delivered from.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 24, 25. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
The figure of the preceding verse continues in this; these two exclamations are those of the inward man, who, feeling himself led captive to the law of sin, utters a groan and then cries for help. The term , man, is fitted to remind every reader that the state described is really his own, so long as the deliverer has not appeared for him.
Why does Paul here call himself wretched, rather than guilty? Because the point in question is not the condemnation resulting from guilt; this subject was treated in the first part, chaps. 1-5. The innate power of evil, against which that of the law is shattered, is a hereditary disease, a misfortune which only becomes a fault in proportion as we consent to it personally by not struggling against it with the aids appropriate to the economy in which we live. Thus undoubtedly is explained the cry of the apostle: , wretched!
The term , to deliver, is used to denote the act of the soldier who runs at his comrade’s cry to rescue him from the hands of the enemy. It too belongs to the same order of figures as the two verbs and in the preceding verse.
The enemy who keeps the prisoner bound is here called the body of this death. The term body has sometimes been taken as a figurative expression, signifying merely mass, load. Thus Calvin says: Corpus mortis vocat massam peccati vel congeriem, ex qu totus homo conflatus est. But there occurs the mention in Rom 7:23 of the , members, of the body in the strict sense; and such a figure is far from natural. Chrysostom, followed by several, takes the body in the strict sense; but in the cry he finds a call for death, also in the strict sense: How long shall I be obliged to live in this miserable body? Calvin’s explanation of the apostle’s cry amounts to the same thing: He teaches us to ask for death as the only remedy of evil; and such indeed is the only end which can make the desire of death lawful. It is impossible to mistake the meaning of this saying more completely. Does not the apostle give thanks in the following sentence for the deliverance obtained? And is this deliverance then death? Assuredly not; it is the spiritual emancipation described in chap. 8. It is then the body strictly so called which is in question, but the body in a sense analogous to that in which it was called, Rom 6:6, the body of sin. It is the body regarded as the principal instrument of which sin makes use to enslave the soul and involve it in spiritual death, estrangement from God, the life of sin (Rom 7:5 : to bring forth fruit unto death). The body continues with the Christian, but to be to his soul an instrument of righteousness, to bring forth fruit unto God (Rom 7:4); comp. Rom 6:12-13. Those who applied the whole passage, Rom 7:14-23, to the regenerate believer, were of course led to the explanation either of Chrysostom or Calvin.
Should the adjective be connected with , the body (this body of death), or with , death (the body of this death)? The Greek phrase would give rise to an almost inevitable misunderstanding, if the first construction were the true one; and Meyer rightly observes that the sigh for deliverance does not arise from the fact that the body is this earthly body, but from the fact that the body is the instrument of this state of death in which the soul is sunk (Rom 7:11). This observation seems to us to decide the question.
There are two things in the form of the second question of Rom 7:24 which do not harmonize well with the supposition that Paul is here speaking as the representative of regenerate humanity. There is the indefinite pronoun , who. A Christian may find himself in distress; but he knows at least the name of his deliverer. Then there is the future: will deliver me. In speaking as a Christian, Paul says, Rom 8:2 : hath made me free; for to the believer there is a deliverance accomplished once for all, as the basis of all the particular deliverances which he may yet ask. He does not pray, therefore, like the man who utters the cry of our verse, and who evidently does not yet know this great fundamental fact. Finally, let us reflect on the opposite exclamation in the following words: I thank God through Jesus Christ. If, as is manifest, we have here the regenerate believer’s cry of deliverance, corresponding to the cry of distress uttered in Rom 7:24, it follows as a matter of course that the latter cannot be the apostle’s, except in so far as he throws himself back in thought into a state anterior to the present time.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
24. O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver from this body of death? Paul was a man of great mind and heart, thinking most profoundly and feeling with an intensity unrealizable by people of ordinary caliber. With the combined powers of his gigantic intellect, iron will, deep, thrilling, electrifying and intense emotionality, he has fought a terrible battle with this indwelling energy antagonizing the law of God; meanwhile, with Napoleonic energy and Alexandrian perseverance, mustering all his powers of mind, heart and spirit, and focalizing all his gigantic volitional enthusiasm, he has striven with desperation to verify the law of God and do His will on earth as the angels do it in heaven. Along this line failure, defeat, collapse and discomfiture have floored him time and again, despite all his wallowing in Arabian sands and importunately crying to God. Three awful years of terrible conflict with this old man of sin, roaring like a lion, floundering like the leviathan and snapping like a crocodile, having fruitlessly passed away, victory evidently further off than ever. We here have a historic metaphor deduced from the custom on the part of ancient conquerors to inflict on their war captives the horrific retribution of binding them fast to a dead corpse taken from the battlefield, tying back to back and limb to limb. It is said that the inhalation of the poisonous miasma emitted from the putrefying corpse invariably killed the living soldier before he got rid of him, unless fortunate to receive some extraneous aid, bringing him happy deliverance. This fact again sweeps away the hypothesis which would apply this chapter to a sinner, as in that case there could be no living body, as every sinner is simply a spiritual corpse. How vividly, clearly and unmistakably do we here see the double-minded man (Jas 1:8; Jas 4:8),
the corpse representing the old, dead, carnal mind, and the living soldier the mind of Christ, wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost in regeneration. Paul himself, with his glorious Damascus experience of conversion, was this living soldier, with the old man of sin tied to him, represented by the loathsome corpse. Every Christian, when converted, sets out to obey the Lord on earth like the angels in heaven, thus keeping the law in the beauty of holiness; but destined to defeat, failure, mortification, despondency, culminating in desperation, like Paul in the verse when he cried out, O wretched man that I am! I went on this line precisely nineteen years, fighting down old Adam by the power of the law, only suffering a thousand signal defeats, till in the midst of a glorious revival, in which I was doing all the preaching, thirty years ago, I reached this memorable Pauline culmination, when, crying out, O wretched man that I am! I gave up the fruitless war against indwelling sin, turning the battle over to Him who is mighty to save and strong to deliver. Then, glory to God, the victory came!
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
7:24 {14} O {d} wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(14) It is a miserable thing to be yet in part subject to sin, which of its own nature makes us guilty of death: but we must cry to the Lord, who will by death itself at length make us conquerors, as we are already conquerors in Christ.
(d) Wearied with miserable and continual conflicts.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The agony of this tension and our inability to rid ourselves of our sinful nature that urges us to do things that lead to death come out even more strongly here. What Christian has not felt the guilt and pain of doing things that he or she knows are wrong? We will never escape this battle with temptation in this life. Eugene Peterson recast Paul’s thought in this verse as follows.
"I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me?" [Note: Eugene H. Peterson, The Message, p. 317.]